Rotation and Reopening
The rotation continues The first quarter of 2021 saw more of the so-called “rotation” into small and value stocks that started last November with the announcement of the first vaccine. We now have roughly 30% of the country, and more than 60% of people over 65,...
The Rotation Trade
The so-called “rotation trade” continued into early February, after a strong Q4. This term refers to the market “rotating” from large growth/big tech stocks to small cap and value stocks in the expectation that the vaccines will do the trick and the economy can...
Mr. GameStop’s Wild Ride
“In the short-run, the stock market is a voting machine. Yet, in the long-run, it is a weighing machine.” — Warren Buffett [i] While the last week in the markets has felt like being on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland, Warren Buffett’s famous quote on stock...
Fourth Quarter 2020 Market Overview
2020 was a year that no one will forget. A devastating pandemic wreaked havoc on our lives, and the resulting shelter in place orders wreaked havoc on the economy. US GDP dropped a historic 32.9% in the second quarter, and the unemployment rate peaked at 14.7%, a...
The Home Stretch: Finishing strong
Financial Planning in the Time of Covid I can’t believe it is December already. In some ways, the year has flown past; in other ways, it seems like an eternity. Decades from now, we will be regaling the bored grandkids with tales of 2020, how we fought the raging...
Third Quarter 2020 Market Overview
The third quarter felt like a roller coaster ride for investors, as optimism around lessening state restrictions and hope for another round of government stimulus sent markets higher in July and August, continuing the historic recovery seen in the second quarter. And...
2020: A Year Like No Other
Only three months to go! We are finally getting to the back stretch of this ‘annus horribilis,’ the Latin term made famous in the modern era by Queen Elizabeth II in 1992 after the British Royal Family suffered an awful year of tragedies and scandals.[i] The daily...
Déjà vu one more time…
This is getting to be a habit. Like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day[1], I keep waking up to what seems like the same situation, only different. There I was, happily preparing to tell you that the S&P 500 (and most of the other equity indices) just had the best...
If History Is Any Indicator. Hear what history tells us about presidential elections and the stock market.
Investors often wonder whether the market will rise or fall based on who is elected president. The data show that capturing the long-term returns of the capital markets isn’t as simple as drawing a direct connection from who is in the White House, or in Congress for...
Apple, Gold, the $ and Inflation
Apple’s stock price is up about 50% year-to-date, quite a remarkable achievement for the world’s largest company. In fact, it has more than doubled in one year! Last Thursday, after the market close, several of the big five (see below) announced big earnings...
