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Investment News
Investment Outlook
March 3, 2010
Investors were reminded in early February that all may not yet be right in the world
when the extent of fiscal problems in Greece became better known.
[Read on]
February 3, 2010
...was not some leftover New Year’s champagne, but might have been the sound
of air leaving the markets in late January as investors questioned the bull equity
market’s remaining strength.
[Read on]
January 12, 2010
Happy New Year, and welcome to a new decade. In the following pages we’ll review
2009 and discuss our outlook for 2010, but first some comments on market action in
December.
[Read on]
December 4, 2009
November markets took on an international tone as equities rebounded from October's mixed finish.
While U.S. economic data during November was inconclusive at best, reports from two consecutive weekend conferences...
[Read on]
November 5, 2009
October generally presents some trepidation to investors as the month that marks the anniversaries of
the epic market crashes of 1929 and 1987, as well as the melt-down we experienced last fall.
[Read on]
October 5, 2009
Investors fearing that September would retain its image as the "the cruelest month"
were pleasantly disappointed when the equity markets rallied to produce the seventh consecutive monthly
gain this year and the best calendar quarterly results since 1998.
[Read on]
September 8, 2009
After haunting markets a decade earlier, "Asian tigers" stalked equity investors
again this August. This time it was fear that tightening credit policies in China
would dampen that country's equity markets which have doubled in this year's rally.
[Read on]
August 4, 2009
Was it the fortieth anniversary of the first moonwalk, or news that the Great Recession continues
to abate, that inspired investors to bid stocks up to new highs for 2009 during July?
Regardless, all of the equity indices gained for the month with the Dow
Industrials posting its best July performance in two decades. Stocks are also posting solid gains for
the year to date period.
[Read on]
July 6, 2009
Investors spent most of June seeking to validate that this spring's recovery in the values of all risk assets was
indeed justified and not just another bear market rally. Equity prices tried repeatedly to best
their levels that prevailed before the March declines but failed to do so. Concurrently the long
awaited market "correction" also failed to occur setting up a trading range between by
875 to 950, as measured by the S&P 500.
[Read on]
June 3, 2009
Equity investors embraced a global recovery theme in May and extended the current rally into its third
consecutive month. Continued evidence that the rate of economic decline is slowing seemed to embolden further
risk taking as funds moved away from government bonds and into stocks and commodities.
[Read on]
May 8, 2009
Hope springs eternal every April as gardens sprout, baseball starts and the first quarter's corporate results
are announced. 2009 was no exception, but we'll discuss green shoots and muddy cleats some other time.
Corporate earnings did capture investor attention however; as the number of companies...
[Read on]
April 1, 2009
Although modern investors fared better than the Bard's Caesar, March 2009 had some treachery of its own.
News that AIG would again require more Treasury assistance sparked an early month sell off that took the
S&P 500 to a new bear-market low of 676 on March 9th. Failure of last November's low of 750 to "hold"
brewed investor angst with equities trading at less than one half of their October 2007 record highs.
[Read on]
March 4, 2009
sell the news? certainly describes February's equity markets as investors eagerly bought
stocks in anticipation of each proposed policy of the new Obama Administration only to sell them in disappointment
when the details (or lack of them) became known. The oft delayed and revised Treasury plan to again
rescue banks, the stimulus plan to boost our economy and the proposed deficit-funded budget all failed to
engender market confidence.
[Read on]
February 3, 2009
Investors expecting a post-inauguration bounce in equity markets were sorely disappointed in January. After
continuing the December rally into the initial trading days of the New Year equity markets turned decidedly
negative as economic and corporate data confirmed the depth of our current recession.
[Read on]
january 1, 2009
Santa did bring his yearend rally but this year it was just in time for New Year's Eve. Equity markets wrestled
throughout the month with the revelation of a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, the decision by the Federal Reserve to
reduce short-term rates to virtually zero, continued choruses of "bailout blues" from automakers and
proof that U.S. consumers have sharply curtailed their consumption.
[Read on]