October 19, 2017
After talking about where the bubble is and then Black Monday, there is something we must acknowledge: despite all the hand-wringing, the market is high and seems to be rising even further. Like the bumblebee— which, according to all sorts of sophisticated aerodynamic analysis, cannot fly—the market doesn’t know it can’t go higher and so it does.
October 18, 2017
October 19, 1987, is a date that will live in stock market infamy. Known as Black Monday, it marks the largest one-day loss in history, with the Dow down exactly 508 points (22.61 percent).
October 17, 2017
Have you noticed how hard it is to blow a bubble these days? Things that were once considered out-and-out, no-doubt-about-it bubbles now get a “meh, I’ve seen bigger” reaction. It seems we’re all a bit jaded.
October 16, 2017
Today's post is from Sam Millette, a fixed income analyst on our Investment Management and Research team.
October 13, 2017
One of the key points in my argument that things are actually pretty good—and likely to get better—has been that with a growing economy, companies are selling more and making more money. Rising profits, especially on a per-share basis, are the foundation for a rising market.
October 12, 2017
I am at the Commonwealth National Conference in San Diego this week, talking with advisors from all around the country. Similar to the Financial Planning Association conference that I attended last week, everyone here wants to know what the market is going to do. In the short term, I suspect it is likely to keep rising.
October 11, 2017
Market risks come in three flavors: recession risk, economic shock risk, and risks within the market itself. So, what do these risks look like for October? Let’s take a closer look at the numbers.
October 10, 2017
Despite the impact of the hurricanes (in many respects, because of them), September’s data came in surprisingly positive. The headline figures were certainly affected by the storms, but the underlying details remained solid.
October 9, 2017
Last week gave us a broad look at the economy, including business confidence surveys and the jobs report. The news came in surprisingly strong, at multiyear bests in many cases. This was, of course, positive and consistent with other data, but the magnitude of the improvements raises the question of how much the storms may have affected the results. That impact varies, but there is reason to believe that the improvements are real—although likely not as good as the numbers would suggest.
October 6, 2017
Since I thought I had covered the most likely outcome of the jobs report in yesterday’s post, I had not planned on writing about it again this morning. Looking at the actual data, though, there are some worthwhile takeaways that deserve a closer look. So, here we are.
