November 4, 2016
After significant bouncebacks in the major indicators over the past couple of months, we saw a bit of a pullback in several components of the data in October. With signs of slowing job growth and a drop in consumer confidence, the positive changes in trend we hoped for last month may have been put on hold.
November 3, 2016
Today will be a short post. I’m in Austin, Texas, at the Commonwealth National Conference, and I’m heading out early this morning to participate in our giving back initiative.
November 2, 2016
After months of election hype and angst, next week we should know who the next president and Congress will be. What then?
November 2, 2016
As expected, October was a tough month for markets, as uncertainty surrounding the upcoming election and the future of interest rates continued to rattle investors.
November 1, 2016
A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece on what the election means for investors’ portfolios. Longer term, the answer was not much. Shorter term, there’s potential for market volatility, but the fundamental fact is that the U.S. economy should continue to grow, and financial markets—and investors—should continue to benefit from that growth.
October 31, 2016
Last week’s economic data was a mixed bag, focusing mostly on the consumer but also touching on business and the economy as a whole.
October 28, 2016
This is the season of ghosts and goblins, scary monsters, and small children roaming around in packs to loot the neighborhood of candy. In other words, it’s very much like the typical investment environment, with everyone looking to get something sweet but nervous about what might leap out of the bushes.
October 27, 2016
After taking a look at the bright side yesterday, more data has come across my desk that confirms just how reasonable (but not, of course, certain) that perspective is. One data point in particular puts some direct context around the reasons for optimism.
October 26, 2016
Yesterday, I wrote about the stock market risks that the AT&T/Time Warner merger might be signaling. Each month, I review market risks as suggested by several other key metrics. And over the last year or so, I’ve been giving a presentation to investors on the causal factors behind a sustained bear market.
Overall, my commentary on the markets has been decidedly risk-centric.
October 25, 2016
There have been a lot of headlines in the past couple of days about the proposed mega-merger between AT&T and Time Warner. In fact, I was on CNBC yesterday discussing it. At $85 billion, this would be the sixth-largest merger of all time, so it is indeed a big deal. Does it have any larger meaning, though?
