Weekly Commentary

This time of year brings the traditional wishes of health, happiness, and prosperity for 2016. We at Phillips and Company certainly echo those wishes for you and your family. Another time honored tradition is the making of New Year’s resolutions. In fact, 45% of Americans make a New Year’s resolution. The top 10 resolutions are […]

  This time of year brings out some of the strangest behavior Wall Street can exhibit. Despite being wrong year in and year out, Wall Street analysts continue to make wild guesses at where the markets will be in the coming year. We at Phillips and Company avoid this ludicrous tradition, as intentionally being wrong […]

  Now that the Fed has raised the Fed Funds rates from effectively zero to .25%, we can move on to the next item on the Wall of Worry to wring our hands over. In last week’s post, I laid out our broad perspective on where we are in the market cycle. In summary, we […]

  On the eve of the first interest rate increase in nearly a decade, markets have naturally become quite jittery. When you consider the number of issues investors are digesting, an increase in volatility is not a surprise. First, the U.S. Federal Reserve may tighten monetary policy by raising interest rates, while other Central Banks […]

  Friday was another strong confirmation that the U.S. consumer is heading in the right direction. The U.S. Department of Labor released their monthly jobs figures and they continued to show strength. The U.S. Economy added 211,000 jobs in November along with strong revisions to prior reports in October and September adding an additional 35,000 […]

  The U.S. Consumer would appear to be taking a more cautious approach to their spending habits compared to last year’s holiday shopping season. However, there may be a reversal in trend coming. Black Friday sales were down by 1.5% over last year’s numbers according to RetailNext. 151 million Americans partook in the Black Friday […]

  Here is what we can put in the books at this point in the year. 1) Third Quarter earnings per share continue their shrinking trend, putting us in an earnings recession for the first time since 2009. With only 19 companies left to report for the S&P 500, it’s likely we will end the […]

  The events in France on Friday have reminded the world we are in dangerous and unpredictable times. Americans need little reminder, as the horror of the 9-11 attacks are etched into our collective memories. France will now likely follow in the footsteps of America as they adopt a war footing. French President Hollande has […]

  If there ever was a confirming indicator for the Fed to start raising rates in December, the Jobs Report released this past Friday was it. [i] After many months of a declining trend in labor, October was a breakout month for the US labor force. The US economy added 271,000 jobs in the month […]

  The economy slowed in Q3 from its growth trajectory in Q2. Overall U.S. GDP only grew at a 1.49% pace down from 3.92% growth in Q2. The good news is the consumer continued to show very strong performance. [i] Consumption, which makes up about 70% of the US economy expanded by 2.19%. Much of […]