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Category: Market Updates

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July 3, 2023
Capital Markets: The Essence of American Capitalism

July 3, 2023: The long dormant capital markets have recently begun showing signs of interest from institutional investors and deal makers anxious to bring companies to market. While activity remains muted at best, expectations are focused on 2024, when there is a prevailing ...

June 26, 2023
New Bull May Need a Breather

June 26, 2023: We know it’s old news at this point, but on June 8, 2023, the S&P 500 entered a new bull market. After such a strong rally off the October lows, this young bull probably needs a breather. A look at the charts suggests this market may be due for a pause. Bul...

June 20, 2023
Market Responses to Fed (In)Action

June 20, 2023: As the economy is likely downshifting, investors should take heed that the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) current stance is eerily similar to early 2007. During that time, the Fed held a tightening bias since they believed the housing market was stabilizing, the e...

June 12, 2023
FOMC Preview: Fed Skip, Pause, or Hike?

June 12, 2023: The Federal Reserve (Fed) meets this week where it is largely expected to not raise short term interest rates for the first time in 15 months. However, Fed messaging has been all over the place in recent weeks. While some Fed officials continue to advocate for...

June 5, 2023
Closing Out Our Equities Overweight

June 5, 2023: Stocks have had a nice run, but at higher prices, the bar for further gains gets higher. We have recently made the case in this publication that there are a lot of reasons to expect the market to go higher between now and year end. But with stocks at higher val...

May 30, 2023
How Much of a Problem is Concentrated Leadership for Stocks?

May 30, 2023: The mega-cap technology companies have powered the broad market higher this year. In fact, the 8.1% gain in the S&P 500 year to date has been driven entirely by six mega-cap stocks: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), Meta (META), Amazon (AMZN), and ...

May 22, 2023
Will History Rhyme? A Fed Pause Has Been Good for Fixed Income

May 22, 2023: Economists like to remind us there is no such thing as a free lunch. In investment parlance, that just means all investments carry risk—even cash. And the big risk with cash is reinvestment risk. That is, while short-term rates are currently elevated, the ris...

May 15, 2023
Earnings Update: Better than Feared Undersells These Results

May 15, 2023: First quarter earnings season is nearly complete, and it has caused us to regret titling our earnings preview commentary on April 10, “Malaise Continues.” While the “better than feared” label fit the past couple of earnings seasons quite well, based on ...

May 8, 2023
King Dollar Still Rules: Why It Continues to Reign

May 8, 2023: Much has been written lately about the threats facing the reserve currency status enjoyed by the U.S. dollar. “De-dollarization” headlines appear on a near-daily basis, suggesting the dollar’s reign is in looming jeopardy, while counter arguments point out...

May 1, 2023
Sell in May: Does This Stock Market Adage Come into Play

May 1, 2023: “Sell in May and go away” is probably the most widely cited stock market cliché in history. Every year a barrage of Wall Street commentaries and stories in the financial press floods in about this popular, but overused, stock market adage. Here we take our ...

April 24, 2023
Draining the Lifeblood of the Economy: The Small Business Sector

April 24, 2023: Investors use various analogies to describe the importance of small businesses in the domestic economy. Some refer to the small business sector as the backbone or the lifeblood of the economy. At this current stage of the cycle, we could say there are rising...

April 17, 2023
A Closer Look at Commercial Real Estate Market

April 17, 2023: The commercial real estate (CRE) market has recently captured the spotlight after being flagged as the next potential shoe to drop following last month’s banking turmoil. While rising rates have weighed on financing costs and the recent bank failures will m...