Global stock prices suffered a sharp first quarter fall as the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global economic shutdown. This pandemic-driven selloff, heightened by turmoil in the global oil markets, was unprecedented in its speed and severity. From February 19th to March 23rd, the U.S. stock market lost over 30% of its value. The Dow Jones
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2019 turned out to be a good year for the U.S. economy and an excellent one for investment returns with stocks bouncing back from a difficult 2018. From the beginning of the year, January’s rally helped set the tone in which the market responded to every downturn with a more sustained upswing. Along the way,
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The third quarter seemingly packed a year’s worth of market action into three fast moving months. Regardless of your stock market, interest rate or economic viewpoint, there was something for everyone in this fluid and volatile quarter. It began in bullish fashion as most of the major stock benchmarks jumped to all-time highs in the
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The second quarter of 2019 continued to be volatile. The roller coaster market started off well in April, but experienced a large and swift pullback in May, mostly due to investors’ fear about trade and tariff tension with U.S. and China, only to rebound and soar by the end of the quarter. With the best
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U.S. equities rebounded from a weak close of 2018 to post significant gains in the first quarter of 2019. Despite a plethora of talk about a global economic slowdown, American investors remained confident as the Federal Reserve confirmed it would adjust planned interest rate hikes and the U.S. government shutdown ended. As a result, the
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The year 2018 was a strange year in market history. Although the indexes all made new highs during the year they ended with the worst December performance since 1930. After nine years of investors making above average returns, they were shocked into the reality that the market doesn’t go straight up. There will always be
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After 9 years of an upward market, with very few corrections along the way, the stock market seems to have hit a brick wall. Are we still in a bull market or has the longest bull market in history ended? The economy and stock market has been good to investors after two major declines caused
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After a negative first quarter, U.S. equities have officially recovered all of their losses from the market correction earlier this year. The S&P 500 Index, representing large-cap stocks, returned a modest 2.65% for the first half of the year. Its small cap counterparts, being the biggest beneficiary of the new tax bill and less susceptible
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Despite an unusually strong start to 2018, the market gave back most of the gains by quarter-end. We experienced more volatility in the past few months than we have seen in the last eleven years although volatility of this magnitude is not unusual if we look back at the past market history. We have had
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It has been a wonderful year for both investment advisors and their clients. For us as your investment advisor, it has been a great year because it has allowed us to continue to help our clients achieve and maintain their goals and objectives. Our focus is not solely the accumulation of wealth; it is also
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