By: Matt Garrott Commodities were up 6.6% for the quarter, while the Energy and Materials sectors were down. Two Federal Reserve presidents resigned amid a securities trading controversy. Major political uncertainties swirl around the debt ceiling and spending bills. Supply chain issues are pushing inflation up. Employers are scrambling to find workers. A [...]
By: Matt Garrott I saw an infographic on social media recently with a breakdown of COVID infections in the United States by county. What caught my eye was the state with the fewest infections – Louisiana with zero. How could this be? The author’s reply in the comments: The computer program used to [...]
By: Matt Garrott Through July, the S&P 500 is up 18%. While this is coming on the back of a staggered recovery from pandemic lockdown, the index hasn’t had a 5% or greater pullback in over a year. Not to jinx things, but in an average calendar year, we see a drawdown of [...]
By: Matt Garrott Halfway through the year, the S&P 500 is up 15.25%, including dividends. Yet at times, headlines read as if the market is down 15%. Two weeks ago, the big story was how June 18th ended the worst week for the S&P 500 since February. One week later, the S&P set [...]
By: Matt Garrott The S&P 500 continued its bull run, returning 5.3% during the month of April. You wouldn’t know it from the headlines, though. Instead of cheering increased vaccination numbers, inflation worries dominate the news. Inflation has picked up by 2.6%, but it is not present across the entire economy. Home prices [...]
By: Matt Garrott The S&P 500 dropped 9.5% on March 12th, 2020. It fell 12% on March 16th, 2020. It didn’t hit bottom for another week. Today, the market is hitting all-time highs. Even if you had the exact worst timing and invested in the S&P 500 at the pre-pandemic peak last February, [...]
By: Matt Garrott The airwaves are abuzz with talk about the impending stimulus package. The consensus view is that it’s not a matter of if we’ll get another round of stimulus, but when and how much. However, the longer the stimulus is delayed, the less necessary $1.9 trillion seems to be. This is [...]
By: Matt Garrott “A good decision is based on knowledge, not numbers.” – Plato By now you have heard of the latest short squeeze. GameStop, a brick-and-mortar retail chain that sells video games and related items has found its way into national headlines. The company’s financials were so poor and its prospects so [...]
By: Matt Garrott What Happened in 2020 What could grab headlines away from the killing of a top Iranian general, a very public oil production dispute between OPEC and Russia, and even the Presidential election? The global pandemic was the top story of 2020 and continues into 2021. After taking hold in the [...]
US large cap equity markets hit all-time highs in November as the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 30,000 for the first time. These round numbers get easier to hit as the index values increase. The Dow’s increase from 10,000 in March 1999 to 11,000 in May 1999 was a 10% move. The increase from 29,000 [...]
