Morning Market Commentary Q1 2023

During the first quarter of 2023 sentiment started off hot with great gains in January but had its ebbs and flows throughout the quarter.  The belief that the Federal Reserve was going to be able to tame inflation and the economy would be able to establish a “soft landing” in terms of a possible recession…

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Morning Market Commentary Q4 2022

In an otherwise volatile and ugly year, the fourth quarter of 2022 turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  Sentiment turned optimistic mainly led by better-than-expected corporate earnings and Year-over-Year inflation rates coming down from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022. S&P, Dow, and NASDAQ The S&P 500 was able to climb higher by…

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Morning Market Commentary for Q2 2022

By the end of the first quarter, it seemed as if we had gone through a much-needed correction, and we were on our way to a recovery. That theory ended quickly as the 2nd quarter turned into something much worse as we entered bear market territory for the first time since March of 2020. It…

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Q2 2020 – Second Quarter Stock Market Commentary

There is an old saying on Wall Street, “The stock market is not the economy and the economy is not the stock market.” We all got a little taste of that this past quarter when we saw a negative -4.8% GDP in the first quarter and predictions of negative -30% to -50% GDP for the second quarter. We saw record…

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2019 Q4 Market Commentary

One year ago, the market was convinced that our economy was headed for a recession and we began 2019 on the heels of one of the worst quarterly market returns in more than a decade.  This could not have been further from the truth.  Once the market figured out that a recession was not happening,…

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Understanding Risk

Few terms in personal finance are as important, or used as frequently, as “risk.” Nevertheless, few terms are as imprecisely defined. Generally, when financial advisors or the media talk about investment risk, their focus is on the historical price volatility of the asset or investment under discussion. Advisors label as aggressive or risky an investment…

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2018 Q3 Market Commentary

After watching the market yo-yo higher and lower in the first 6 months of 2018, it finally gained some traction on the heels of a stronger economy and fantastic earnings announcements.  It seemed like every day during earnings season we got news of another company beating the analyst estimate and raising their outlook.  Additionally, strong…

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2018 Q2Market Commentary

Looking back on our commentary written in early January we see that the S&P 500 closed at 2,673.61.  It now stands at 2,718.37 as of the close of the 2nd quarter – up a whopping 1.7% for the year.  It’s hard to put a positive spin on that kind of return but in all reality,…

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2017 Q4 Market Commentary

It was quite a year driven by earnings growth and the hope and realization of deregulation and tax-reform. We began the year at 2,238.83 on the S&P 500 following earnings of $106.26 for 2016. In 2017 those earnings rose to $124.94 – an increase of 17.6% which is stellar by any measure. As we approach…

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