Summary Capital markets remain turbulent as we make our way through the early months of 2023. Thus, the priority to manage investment risk through broad portfolio diversification remains as important as ever. And gold is an allocation that has distinctive characteristics in this regard. Doing Its Own Thing. One of the keys that differentiates gold from a portfolio diversification perspective is …
Economic & Market Report: Falling Slowly
Summary The latest reading on inflation was released on Tuesday morning. On the surface, the report for the month of January seemed generally unmoving. The annual rate of inflation did not come down as much as expected, but it still edged lower. And this latest pricing data was not nearly as bad as some market watchers feared heading into the …
Economic & Market Report: Don’t Go Away
Summary U.S. stock investors are at it again. Outside of a tax loss harvesting blip at the end of last year, the S&P 500 has been moving steadily higher over the past several months since bottoming last October. Over this time period, the benchmark index posted a more than +20% trough to peak bounce. A primary driver of this recent …
Economic & Market Report: Time to Study Abroad
Summary Non-U.S. stocks have been on fire as of late. After years of chronic underperformance relative to the United States, both developed international and emerging market stocks have been strongly outperforming over the last few months. This recent development raises a worthwhile question – have we finally arrived at the point where non-U.S. markets are ready to take the sustained …
Economic & Market Report: Investing’s Rich Pageant
Summary Maria: “You should get out of these clothes immediately. You’ll catch your death of pneumonia, you will.”Clouseau: “Yes, I probably will. But it’s all part of life’s rich pageant, you know?” A Shot In The Dark, 1964 After more than a year of a back and forth downward slide, stocks continue to struggle. Frustrating indeed, but such challenges are all part …
Economic & Market Report: The Other Side Of The Mountain
Summary We have begun the descent down the other side of the mountain. The long dormant inflationary pressures that erupted nearly two years ago are increasingly subsiding. Assuming this trend continues, this has important implications for the capital markets outlook as we move through the coming year. The impact on some asset classes may take time to materialize, while other …
Economic & Market Report: Turning the Bend
This week, we had our first full week of market action in 2023. And so far, we’ve been seeing a friendly market with mostly up days here as we begin the year. Could it be a sign of things to come? Maybe but I wouldn’t set my sights on that too soon because there is still a lot of “froth” …
Economic & Market Report: We Are Where We Are BUT….
As we begin the new year, it’s only fitting to take a step back and reflect on what was and what is to be. Well, we all know how 2022 played out and it was quite frankly an unprecedented year in both the equity and bond markets as both trended down pretty hard all year. Equity losses were the highest …
Economic & Market Report: Out with the Old, In with the New
Happy New Year! This week, we’ve had a bit of an up and down week in the markets as it has been trying to eke out a Santa Claus rally. One developing story that may shake things up is the news out of China about another Covid outbreak. This is certainly not what anyone wants to hear but it is …
Jingle Bells, “Market Bells”
Happy Holidays to everyone and wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah! The markets this week have continued to roll over and unfortunately, it does not look like we are going to have that classic Santa Claus rally. So in terms of thinking about the holidays and trying to add some holiday cheer, let’s look at this …