Blog

  With a large sigh of relief, we watched January fade to black. The US equity markets were down over 3% in the month.[i] Underlying their decline is some telling data that should come as no surprise to investors. First, S&P 500 corporate earnings growth… More >>

  It's not often I "go political" in the weekly commentary and certainly this edition has the potential to be misconstrued as political. The President was at the top of the list for major events with The State of The Union speech this week. Skipping the political… More >>

  The world seems a bit confusing to the average investor. Generally, if the US economy is expanding you would anticipate inflation, especially if you consider all the money sitting on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet. Inflation (dotted line) leads to higher interest… More >>

  While scanning several economic indicators this week, one indicator had a small hiccup, which gave me a bit of indigestion. Auto loans appear to be increasing in delinquency. The data suggests we are seeing acceleration in delinquency rates not only from Q2 2014 to Q3… More >>

  One of the best returning asset classes this last year was the US Dollar.[i] It's no surprise with so many things looking so good for the US Economy: Interest rates and inflation remain low. Consumers have more money to spend thanks to savings from low oil prices.… More >>

  After declining during the first half of December, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices rebounded to close at new highs on December 26th, providing a nice holiday gift to investors. Historically, the month of December has performed very well with the S&P 500… More >>

  I know we have opined on the price of oil for the last couple of weeks and perhaps the topic is getting a bit tired. However, when the price of any asset class drops as precipitously as oil has, the topic merits continued examination. Those joyfully absorbed in the… More >>

  It appears market participants are growing more concerned about global deflation rather than focusing on the benefits of cheaper energy prices. Across the spectrum of commodities you can see noticeable drops in prices.[i] As most of these are industrial commodities,… More >>

  The recent employment report released on Friday gave us the strongest sign of the year that the US macro-economic picture is looking very strong. The US economy added 321,000 jobs in November of which 314,000 were in the private sector.[i] This is the best year for… More >>

  It's been well over 4 years since we wrote about the need for the return of the self-fulfilling economic cycle, one where the consumer earns and spends. In turn, US companies earn, hire, and produce, which drives more income earners to spend. It’s a "virtuous cycle" or a… More >>