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  Considering all the chaos throughout Emerging Markets, the U.S. equity markets have been remarkably calm over the past few weeks. The indication for this calm is the low and declining levels of volatility in the U.S. equity markets, as reflected by the VIX Index… More >>

Ten years ago, on September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy.  That event symbolized the ultimate consequence of excessive lending by banks. [i] Over the period to follow, known as the “Great Financial Crisis,” the three major U.S. stock market indices—the… More >>

If you’ve caught any of the recent news headlines, you would know Emerging Markets have been hit hard in 2018.  If you haven’t, a Google search will probably yield something like the following: [i] Year-to-date, the Emerging Markets Index has fallen 7.78 percent;… More >>

Despite all of the political news saturating the media day in and day out, discussion of the housing market has certainly found its voice.  If you follow the news, headlines suggest housing is on a slowing trend. “Housing market is showing signs of cracking:… More >>

  Fear sells!  There is no question about it, especially when it comes to the uncertainties associated with investment performance.  To the untrained eye, or simply to regular investors managing their own portfolios, it’s extremely difficult to differentiate between… More >>

Second quarter earnings reports are approximately 91 percent complete; needless to say, it’s hard to be disappointed.  So far, according to FactSet, S&P 500 companies have reported earnings-per-share growth of 24.6 percent, exceeding the expectations of 20 percent… More >>

Trade war rhetoric continues to dominate the headlines, and in some respects has put a damper on capital flowing into U.S. equities; perhaps this is overshadowing the fact that we continue to see strong U.S. corporate earnings growth. [i] [ii] On a positive note,… More >>

This past week was filled with market-moving surprises. First, Facebook announced slower growth ahead and lower margins due to increased spending on security and data integrity.  Following this announcement, the company lost approximately $120 billion of their market… More >>

  A few times a year I like to call out some bad behavior, but not the normal, everyday type of bad behavior. I’m talking about the bad behavior of investors. You might wonder what behavior has to do with investing.  Investing is simple: buy low and sell high. That’s… More >>

The last couple of weeks of trade war rhetoric has turned decisively real.  Our view was, and still is, much of the trade war talk is overplayed.  However, we are now seeing the first phase of implementation. [i] Consistent with the chart above, the United States has… More >>