Insights

Summary The stock market pulled back during the second quarter but the decline was modest (3.1%).   More than 100% of the decline was in...

July Unemployment: Fourth consecutive disappointing report.  The trend is confirmed.  This is going to put pressure on the Federal...

The conference was opened on Sunday May 6th by James Montier of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo (GMO) who came into Chicago (where the...

In the 4Q12 Quarterly Perspective I wrote that benchmarks can be misleading.  I referred to the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial...

Summary Once again, most of what could go wrong for the global economy did not go wrong.  Investors began to accept the idea of a U.S....

Unemployment Friday’s report was disappointing.  A net gain of 120,000 jobs with no prior month upward revisions is bringing back the...

The Economy The economy continues to improve, if slowly.  243,000 new jobs were created last month, continuing the positive trend. ...

Summary As is so often the case with stocks, a very bad quarter was followed by a very good one.  Last quarter the stock market rose...

Last Friday’s unemployment report was stronger than expected.  200,000 new jobs were created last month, and the overall unemployment...

The Federal Reserve met Tuesday and decided not to do anything.  They were probably influenced by a slightly better employment report...

Economically, not all that much happened in October.  On September 30th the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) said that we were...

Summary No two ways about it – the third quarter of 2011 was difficult.  The stock market declined all three months.  July was the month...

I've been trying to put my arms around the financial events of the past two weeks.  Clearly the employment picture in the United States...

The market has been fast all week, meaning that just as soon as you write finish writing something the market changes and what you wrote...

Summary Stocks rallied sharply in the last week of the second quarter to finish relatively flat.  The quarter had started strong for...

Here is a short comment on the markets, because what I really want to do is comment on funds: The global economy is slowing down.  We...

I wanted to do a quick update before I head to Chicago for the Morningstar Conference.  I will post a longer report with my thoughts on...

A few thoughts: 1.  Forecasting the markets near term path is difficult under any circumstances.  That said, when the Federal Reserve...

Summary Stocks posted another gain during a very volatile first quarter of 2011.  The U.S. stock market surged to a gain of more than...

As you are no doubt aware, on March 11th an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred just off the northeast coast of Japan,...