Newsletters

FED POLICY     The Federal Reserve increased its policy rate by another 25 basis points to 5-5.25% at the most recent Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. While the recent rate hike was widely anticipated, the Fed's policy statement no...

The Bond Market Crisis of 2022: Lessons Learned 2022 marked the worst year in bond market history. The Total Bond Index, which tracks U.S. investment-grade bonds, saw prices plummet more than 13%. Prior to 2022, the index had suffered its worst 12-month return in...

BANK STOCKS UNDER PRESSURE, GOVERNMENT TAKES ACTION Bank stocks, specifically smaller regional banks, have come under tremendous pressure recently due to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Concerns mounted...

MARKETS RALLY TO START THE YEAR Markets have rallied to start the year against a backdrop of resilient (albeit slowing) global economic growth, declining inflation concerns, and the potential that the Federal Reserve will end its current monetary tightening...

SECURE 2.0 ACT - SOME KEY TAKEAWAYS In 2019 Congress passed the “The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act” which made major revisions to the existing rules around retirement savings. These changes included raising the age of required...

FED POLICY IN FOCUS Markets rallied for the second consecutive month in November as investors became increasingly optimistic that the   Federal Reserve would move to slow down their current pace of interest rate hikes in December. The chorus for a less...

MARKETS AND THE FED Markets rallied in October as investors became hopeful that the Federal Reserve would soon pivot and change its monetary policy approach. However, during the most recent FOMC meeting, Chairman Jerome Powell again increased the federal funds rate by...

CASH AND TREASURY BILLS We shifted portfolios to be more defensive during 2021 and that has continued throughout this year. As part of that defensive positioning, we have had an outsized position in cash, which we placed in T bills to generate some income. When we...

Markets The outlook for the U.S. economy brightened over the summer due to declining energy prices, steady consumer spending, and solid payroll growth. There was also a belief in the markets that the Federal Reserve would potentially ease up on the pace and magnitude...

Markets Heading into earnings season, investors were very concerned that company profits would fall short of expectations and that forward guidance could be meaningfully cut going forward. Bracing for underwhelming results, earnings came in better than expected with,...