Year -to- date has been a joy for equity investors, thanks largely to the promise of a reopened economy. The Standard & Poor’s 500 is up 15.25%, and value stocks have outperformed growth, up 17.03% vs 14.60%, according to the Morningstar advisory service. READ MORE
Preferred stocks are an often ignored corner of the investment world. The author was alerted to them in the early 1990s when, for a time, I worked in corporate cash management...READ MORE
Quarter end Report March 31, 2021
The first quarter of 2021 saw a decided turn from a “pandemic mentality” to re-opening euphoria. Elders in most states were told they were first in line for one of the two approved Covid-19 vaccines but found frustration in trying to get access. Thankfully, […]
Portfolio Update
March 6, 2021
Over the last few trading sessions, I advised exiting or reducing four profitable holdings found in “Active” client accounts. These were Equinix (EQIX), American Tower (AMT), Zoetis (ZTS) and Adobe (ADBE). These are companies in relatively unrelated industries, with attractive fundamentals for […]
It’s a Wrap…2020, the year of the long term investor
While it is popular to dismiss 2020 as a terrible year, stock and bond investors who refused to panic can celebrate better than average portfolio gains. If one chooses to […]
Most of us share disgust at the events in DC this week even if we do not always agree on things political, economic or whatever. I recently read a book called “Like War” that illustrates how those who win the virality war on the internet tend to dominate real world events. There are foreign actors […]
This article confirms what I’m hearing anecdotally – people have been saving money during the Pandemic, with options for spending constrained. Meanwhile, our marvelous and ingenius people have found ways to work around Covid’s face-to-face constrictions and continue working and earning. Result: likely continued low interest rates and likely bull market […]
As suggested in our pre-election “what if” commentary, a split government is a net positive for the stock market. It appears that the election of the Bidan/Harris ticket was more of a repudiation of extreme behavior on the part of Donald Trump than an endorsement of a strong shift to the left in […]
The World Will (...) End with the Next Election (NOT) As we approach the November 3 election, I thought it might be useful to submit my thoughts on how different outcomes may affect the financial markets. These are the thoughts of someone with 46 years active involvement in financial markets: Markets have an uncanny way of “knowing” what the outcome will be, but this election is scrambled eggs so it’s hard to believe markets know what is coming. Let’s consider some possibilities:
Below is a graphic borrowed from the Wall Street Journal online, tracking equity performance both here and abroad for the year to date, as of September 30, 2020:
As this quarter wound down, unemployment is above 8 percent, the federal […]