Category: Weekly Market Commentary
Market Commentary
Market Commentary: S&P Decline Continues While Consumer Demand Keeps Climbing
The S&P 500 continued its string of negative weeks, dropping 3% last week. It was the seventh straight weekly decline in the index of large-cap stocks. The S&P 500 temporarily fell more than 20% on Friday, but the market rallied and the index finished down 18.1% from its January all …
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Market Commentary: S&P 500 Decline Continues, But Inflation Shows Signs of Leveling Off
Market volatility continues to make life challenging for investors. The S&P 500 declined for the sixth straight week, the longest streak since 2011. Six-week losing streaks used to be much more common. The S&P 500 declined at least six consecutive weeks six different times from 2000 to 2011.
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Market Commentary: U.S. and U.K. Central Banks Offer Contradictory Outlooks, Making for a Rollercoaster Market Week
Market volatility surged last week, although the end result for the S&P 500 was a decline of only 0.2%. Central banks were the main culprits for the volatility. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced it would raise rates 0.5% and clarified plans on how it will shrink its balance sh …
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Market Commentary: Despite Disappointing GDP, Underlying Strength Keeps U.S. Economy on Solid Footing
Market volatility continued last week as global markets tried to digest a slew of earnings reports and economic updates. Likely the biggest release was the U.S. GDP report for the first quarter, which showed the U.S. economy contracted by an annualized 1.4% over the first three months of th …
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Market Commentary: As Fed Mulls Bigger Rate Hike, 2022 Bond Market Trending to be Most Volatile in Decades
Markets reflected the jittery disposition of investors. The rapid move in interest rates and persistent inflation have unnerved some investors and contributed to higher volatility. Volatility has risen in most asset classes, but bond investors have experienced the biggest swings. 2022 is ti …
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Market Commentary: Fed Expected to Accelerate Pace of Rate Hikes, Reduce Balance Sheet
Corporate earnings comparisons are getting more difficult. Factset reports first quarter S&P 500 earnings are expected to rise 4.5%. Earnings growth will likely increase during the quarter as companies deliberately push earnings estimates lower so they can produce positive surprises. Wh …
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Market Commentary
Market Commentary: Fed Officials Indicate Faster Pace, Steeper Hikes for Interest Rate Increases
Initial jobless claims reached their lowest level since September 1969. Continuing claims fell to 1.35 million and reached their lowest level since 1970. The labor force was half as large then as it is today. Concerns about inflation, excess demand, and uncertainty about Russia’s attack on …
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Market Commentary
Market Commentary: To Combat Inflation, Fed Plans 6 More Interest Rate Hikes, Surprising Investors
The Federal Reserve both met expectations and surprised investors at the same time last week. As expected, the Fed raised rates 0.25%, beginning to unwind the sharp rate reductions it implemented to protect the economy during the early stages of COVID-19. The surprise was the announced inte …
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Market Commentary
Market Commentary: Fed Poised to Raise Rates this Week, Could Signal Future Increases
Inflation continued to bound higher last month. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) climbed 0.8% last month and is 7.9% higher than one year ago. The big culprits were food and energy. Food prices leapt 1% last month and gasoline prices increased 6.6% as part of an increase in overall energy pri …
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Market Commentary
Market Commentary: Risk of Expanded Russian Conflict Pushes Markets Lower; US Economy Adds 678,000 Jobs
Concerns the Russian invasion of Ukraine will draw more countries into the conflict raised risk and pushed global markets lower. Statements about nuclear forces going on alert and world leaders discussing a no-fly zone concerned investors.
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