Weekly Commentary

Don’t Look Down: The GDP Growth Cliff Weekly CEO Commentary 12-17-12 Tim Phillips, CEO—Phillips & Company This week the Federal Reserve took another step in encouraging risk taking by shifting their communication policy. They effectively went to a rules-based approach to managing interest rates. In short they said as long as unemployment was above 6.5% […]

It’s Never Quite What You Expect Weekly CEO Commentary 12-10-12 Tim Phillips, CEO—Phillips & Company If you followed your instincts and sold out of your equity positions 3 weeks ago, you would have missed a 2.25% return. Certainly you would have been reacting to your instincts that tell you the political class in this country […]

Stock Buybacks: Headline Investing or Looking Under the Hood? Weekly CEO Commentary 12-3-12 Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company Stock buybacks are expected to be on the rise, according to a report in the New York Times. We have already seen Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, and Chipotle announce buybacks, and ADT has announced both […]

  The All Consuming Fiscal CliffWeekly CEO Commentary 11-26-12Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company It’s clear that Thanksgiving dinner could barely wrap up as the shopping began. Stores opened as early as 8 PM on Thursday to get a jump on the most important tradition Americans share: consumption! CNN reported that shopping was up […]

Fear or Rationality Weekly CEO Commentary 11-19-12 Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company With the markets down 3.7% in the last three weeks, it’s easy to think investors are fearful. Or, they could also be rationally pricing in some legitimate issues. Let’s take the fear side first. It’s easy to be fearful of the […]

  The Emotional Cliff: Jumping is not a StrategyWeekly CEO Commentary 11-12-12Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips & Company Before I get into my market commentary, I want to take a minute to extend a thank you to all of our veterans and active duty military personnel for all of the grueling hard work and sacrifices […]

Does It MatterWeekly CEO Commentary 11-5-2012Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips and Company Of all the times to not be political, now is one of the best. In what looks like a very close election and polls suggesting an evenly divided country, I am sure emotions are running very high. Out of respect for our equally […]

Managing Earnings and ExpectationsWeekly CEO Commentary 10-29-12Tim Phillips CEO, Phillips and Company We are over two weeks into earnings season, and it looks like companies are doing two things: managing their earnings well, and also managing expectations well. Through the end of last week, 245 companies of the S&P 500 have reported earnings, and 71% […]

The Stealth Consumer Weekly CEO Commentary 10-22-12 Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips and Company For the third month in a row, retail sales numbers were stronger than expected according to the US Census Bureau. Perhaps the consumer is doing better than most give credit. This week I want to dive a little deeper into the […]

Q4 2012 Look Ahead: Look Beyond 66 DaysWeekly CEO Commentary 10-15-12Tim Phillips, CEO – Phillips and Company Every quarter for the last several years, I have presented a “Look Ahead” for the coming quarter during my committee meetings with institutional clients. I have summarized the presentation below, and provided a link to follow along with […]