Key Points About Those Rate Cuts At this time last month, traders were betting (via Fed Funds futures trading) that there was an 80% chance the Federal Reserve would cut their short-term discount rate at the March policy meeting. But on February 2, the Labor...
Quick Takes After starting on a down note in the first week of the year, the S&P 500 Index has now risen for four straight weeks and for 13 of the last 14 weeks. It closed last week up +1.4% at a new record high. However, the gains continue to be dominated by the...
Quick Takes After starting on a down note in the first week of the year, U.S. stocks have rallied for three straight weeks, propelling the S&P 500 Index up another +1.0% to yet more all-time highs. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up +0.9%, and the small cap...
Quick Takes After starting on a down note in the first week of the year, U.S. stocks rallied for a second straight week, propelling the S&P 500 Index up +1.2% to a new all-time high. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up +2.3%, but small caps lagged again as the...
Quick Takes After starting on a down note in the first week of the year, U.S. stocks and bonds rebounded in the second. The S&P 500 Index was up +1.8% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up +3.1%. However, small caps lagged, with the Russell 2000 Index...
Key Points Risk Matters Virtually all asset classes were up for the month, quarter, and year ending Dec. 31, 2023. Yet most are still negative on a two-year basis because of a basic principle that shapes investing: market returns are not symmetrical. It’s not very...