Monthly Market Updates

December is traditionally one of the better months of the year, closing higher more often than any other month, and it did not disappoint this year.  After a strong November the month got off to a solid start and moved higher every week of the month.  Money managers compete for performance and with the strong market performance this year few wanted to show cash on their balance sheets at the end of… Read More ›

November is the beginning of a 3-month period that has historically been the best of the year for stocks. Last year’s Q4 sell off is a reminder that history is just a guide, but this year November followed the script and moved steadily higher throughout the month, with multiple new all-time highs for the major indices. Despite all the impeachment noise out of Washington, the markets continued to focus on China trade… Read More ›

September has been far and away the worst month of the year for stocks. After getting through that month with a 1.7% gain we were hoping October, a month that has a bad reputation, would behave itself as well and it did. A month that has a reputation for volatility had relatively low volatility and big market declines we have seen in previous Octobers failed to materialize. Positive movement on a China… Read More ›

September has traditionally been the most difficult month of the year for stocks, but we got off to a good start following the Labor Day weekend. Despite all the noise and political posturing in Washington, it continued to be China trade news that moved the markets. House Democrats decided the best chance of getting Trump out of office was to impeach him, so they began a formal impeachment inquiry late in the… Read More ›

Coming into the month we thought China trade would be a primary market driver, which it was, but we didn’t expect to see the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note drop by 25% during the month, an extremely unusual event. Much of the talk this month was about the inverted yield curve, when the yield on the 10-year Treasury falls below the yield on the 2-year Treasury, and how that has… Read More ›