This morning, I stopped to get a card and balloon for my son for Valentine’s Day. I was shocked—once again—at how much the greeting card companies have monetized our need to be loving parents, spouses, and so forth. With these kinds of prices, you would think retail spending would have soared last month. Think again.

January was a tough month. We started with a U.S. attack on an Iranian general (creating thoughts of war) and ended with the possibility of a new global pandemic (with the Wuhan coronavirus spreading around the world). In between, of course, we had the impeachment spectacle here in the U.S., as well as the British exit from the European Union. All in all, it was quite a difficult month from a news perspective. Which made it somewhat odd that markets were not hit harder than they were.

Brad here. Today, I’m pleased to introduce a post by Andrew Kitchings, a portfolio manager with Commonwealth’s Investment Management and Research team. Enjoy!

Tomorrow, we get the big one, the most (in my opinion) significant economic report of all: the jobs report. So, what should we expect?

The idea behind the old adage “as goes January, so goes the year” is this: if the market closes up in January, it will be a good year; if the market closes down in January, it will be a bad year. In fact, it is one of the more reliable of the market saws, having been right almost 9 times out of 10 since 1950. Last year, January saw gains of 7.9 percent for the S&P 500 (the best January since 1987), predicting a very good year. Indeed, that is just what we got.

Here on the blog, Brad often writes about gratitude. The things he gives thanks for range from the seemingly trivial (watching his cats wrestle) to the profound (health, family, and happiness). Often, he mentions that he jots down three things for which he’s grateful every day. In reading these posts, what strikes the strongest chord with me is seeing things through the lens of “getting to” rather than “having to.” It has very much influenced how I try to navigate the intricacies of modern life and the stresses that come along with it. I get to go to work and do something I love. My wife suggested there’s another wrinkle to it and added “celebrate.” As in, I get to go to the gym and celebrate with 30 minutes on the treadmill. Sounds trite, but it helps.

Two Fridays ago, the S&P 500 hit its closing record. About two weeks ago, the Dow cracked 29,000 for the first time. At the time, the headlines were all about how high the markets could go—and how quickly. But after the past couple of days, with the markets experiencing renewed volatility, we’ve started hearing much less about the new stock market records. Instead, the headlines are all about the risks, which certainly include the coronavirus, but also the impeachment trial and Brexit.

After years of drama, headlines, predictions of doom, multiple elections, and so forth, we are finally (almost) there: Brexit day. On Friday, the British flag will be lowered outside European Union (EU) buildings as Britain formally exits the union. And so the post-Brexit world will begin.

Brad here. One of the hot topics in investing is sustainability—expressed as either socially responsible investing (SRI) or environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. Recently, major players have doubled down on their commitment to sustainability, although Commonwealth has been here for years. In this post, Peter Essele, vice president of investment management and research, gives a very good summary of what is happening—and what we are doing about it.

One of the potential disruptors of the generally positive economic news surfaced in the form of a viral outbreak in China last week. Known as the coronavirus, as of this morning, there were 895 cases in mainland China (mostly in the Wuhan area) and 26 deaths, for a mortality rate of less than 3 percent. There were also at least 20 other cases around the world, including 1 case here in the U.S. The comparison that is being made is to the last major new disease from China, SARS, in 2003.