Frozen in Place: Bloomberg.com had a very interesting insight this morning on the movement of the S&P 500 for this year-to-date. As of this morning, the market was up around 2% year-to-date, a mediocre performance in a bull market but deeply disappointing for investors after the double-digit gains of the past few years. But more interesting […]
This year was marked by volatility, and this should come as no surprise. Our economic situation, our jobs market, the swings in oil production, and highly unpredictable political situations across the globe contribute to this volatility. Furthermore, we have relied on the U.S. economic stewards to create the foundation for unprecedented market growth, but now […]
One major economic headline took the news on Friday just as all were preparing for the weekend religious double-header of Passover and Easter. Namely, the jobs figure for March was surprisingly weak with just 126,000 new jobs created. On top of downward revisions for January and February, it was a very weak quarter for creating […]
After a brief rally at the end of January/beginning of February, oil prices are back at lows not seen since 2009 and the height of the Great Recession. With US production continuing to rise, now above 9 million barrels/day and storage volume at levels not seen in 80 years, the glut appears to continue. The […]
Apple came out with their December 2014 quarterly earnings this week, and the numbers are impressive. They sold 74 million phones over the holidays – or 34,000 phones every hour, 24 hours a day and generated $18 billion in profit for the three months. This is a record for Apple (as well as every other […]
2014 presented a set of challenges that we have not seen in a long time. While the financial markets continue to have generally positive results, the global political situation is changing drastically. The continued dichotomy in financial returns — some markets up, others down – – is putting extreme stress on institutional money managers. In […]