Insights

Market thoughts March 4, 2025 by Mark Carlton, CFA®

Summary With dividends reinvested, the S&P 500 gained close to 25% in 2024, but only 2.4% [1]  of that came in the final three months. ...

Trademark Blog Post – December 11, 2024: The U.S. stock market surged after the November election.  Investors remembered that in the...

Summary The third quarter of 2024 was an investment advisor’s dream.  Performance was very good, but better yet it was widely distributed...

Summary The S&P 500 gained 4.3% last quarter, and 15.3% in the first half of the year[1].  That is the good news.  The bad news was that...

Summary The stock rally that began in late October continued through this past March.  The S&P 500 added 10.6% last quarter<1>....

Summary Higher interest rates continued into late October, but at that point positive inflation news and encouraging statements from...

Trademark Financial Market Update – November 1, 2023 Interest Rate Environment Update It seems to me that the world is now in a new...

Summary The stock market rally ran into the wall of higher interest rates at the beginning of August.  As a result, the market gave up...

Trademark Financial Market Update – August 23, 2023 1) The US dollar continues to rise, suggesting a “risk-off” approach for global...

Schwab TransitionIn 2020, our custodian, TD Ameritrade, was acquired by the Charles Schwab Corporation. Over the past several years, the...

Summary The markets experienced as much volatility last quarter as we normally see in a full year, but it was mostly to the upside. ...

Trademark Financial Market Update – March 2, 2023 I am inclined to see the stock market as a tug of war between bullish (upward) and...

Summary First of all, we are happy to report that the fourth quarter of 2022 was a positive one for both stocks and bonds.  This allowed...

Summary As hard as it would have been to believe, three months ago, that the stock and bond market could both continue to decline, they...

Trademark Financial Market Update – August 29, 2022 1) The big news today was always going to be the market reaction to Fed Chairman...

Summary The second quarter was a difficult one for stocks, as the S&P 500 plunged -16.1%<1>.  In fact, we’d have to go back to the first...

Trademark Financial Market Update – June 1, 2022 1) Overall: Last week was a great one for risk assets.  Both stocks and bonds had been...

Summary Sometimes a quarter passes and nothing much happens.  Other times, so much happens in a quarter that it seems like a full year. ...

The stock market recovery that began on March 15th has stalled out as comments by Fed Governor Lael Brainard on Monday scared investors...