Weekly Commentary

  Over the past several years, the Fed has over promised and under delivered when it has come to raising the fed funds rate.  Dovish comments are offset by hawkish comments every step of the way.  Now, here we are again. Once again, it’s December and we’re facing the last possible opportunity for the fed […]

The media outlets remain saturated with continuous talk about the surprise turnout from the Presidential election, as well as the ongoing speculation about how the next four years will play out with Trump and his Administration at the helm.  With all the buzz, it’s easy to lose sight of what ultimately matters in the short […]

  Now that the Presidential election has come to a close, we’ve experienced nothing short of an unforeseen rally in the equity markets. The recently dubbed “Trump Equity Rally” has ended its third week with another string of strong performances across several key sectors [i]. Post Trump’s Presidential victory, many of the sectors that saw […]

  Since Donald Trump won the U.S. Presidential Election, there has been a lot of social anxiety, name calling, and fear baiting type ‘tantrums.’ However, these outbursts are not the only tantrums to which I’m referring when considering the situation surrounding President-Elect Trump. For one, there appears to be a dollar denominated reaction to the […]

  Last week was certainly a surprising and eventful week that few predicted. The election of Donald Trump as our 45th President caught most Americans by surprise, as the odds were resoundingly against a Trump Presidency. [i] The only data point that had a high probability of Trump as President was a chart from our […]

  “It only takes one clown to make a circus.” These were words professed by former SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt during a conference I attended about 20 years ago. Those words prove prophetic today as we conclude the political silly season we have been locked into for the last 18 months. The real question is: […]

  Finally, we had some decent U.S. macroeconomic developments. As reported on Friday, with U.S. GDP growing at 2.9%, this is the best quarter over quarter growth since mid-2014. [i] Behind the headline numbers lay some interesting details. First, the U.S. Consumer (as we opined in our Q4 2016 Look Ahead) looks to be holding […]

  As we approach the end of this political silly season, it’s not surprising to see the range of concerns shared by investors and advisors alike. Taken from the Eaton Vance Top-of-Mind Index survey: [i] The Fed’s impending rate rise is the top concern Following in second place is the Presidential election And in third […]

  As we start the 2016 Q3 earnings report season, it’s prudent to take a look at how this third quarter might turn out. Now that the election outcome is looking a little more certain and “status quo” oriented, market participants might take this time to start turning their attention toward earnings. Expectations are for […]

  Relative to the last few decades of cooperation, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the entire world is adopting a competitive footing. This is a timely matter seeing as we are in the middle of a national election that will select the person that will lead the world to either greater cooperation, or to increased […]