2024 Q1 Market Review
The equity rally continued this quarter with signs of a broadening of participation as the quarter ended. The S & P 500® was up 10.4% during the quarter, the MSCI All-Country World Index® returned 8.2% while the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index fell by -0.8% as global interest rates modestly increased. US Mega Cap Growth […]
2023 Q4 Market Review
The quarter started with a continuation of the late summer weakness we discussed in our last letter but ended with a record rally that enabled the equity market to erase the losses of 2022. The S & P 500® was up 11.6% during the quarter, the MSCI All-Country World Index® returned 11.2% and the Bloomberg […]
2023 Q2 Market Review
The quarter started cautiously as fears of the banking crisis lingered yet ended on a strong note – both economically as well as within the equity markets. The S & P 500® was up 8.7% during the quarter, the MSCI All-Country World Index® returned 6.3% and the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index declined by 1.5%. […]
2022 Q4 Market Review
The returns for the year 2022 remained deep in negative territory, with nearly all asset classes down double-digits, the exception being the commodity index, which returned nearly 25%, led by energy. The S & P 500® was down 18.2% while the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index® was down 16.3%. Another standout was the NASDAQ, which […]
2022 Q3 Market Review
Asset classes of all types declined again during the third quarter. The S & P 500 was down nearly 6% during the quarter, the MSCI All-Country World index declined nearly 8% and the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Bond Index also declined by 7.4%. Again, market volatility caused significant extremes in relative performance: Emerging Market Equities (-12.5%), […]
2022 Q2 Market Review
All asset classes declined during the second quarter. The S&P 500 was down over 17% during the quarter. Similarly, the Aggregate Bond Index also was down, declining nearly 5%. Market volatility also caused significant extremes in relative performance: Small Cap Value (-14.6%) vs. Large Cap Growth (-20.7%); Short-term Bonds (-0.5%) vs Long-term Bonds (-12.4%); Utility […]
2022 Q1 Market Review
The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military on February 24th caused an increase in equity and fixed income market volatility during the first quarter. The S & P 500 was down nearly 5% during the quarter and the Aggregate Bond Index was also down, declining nearly 6%. Market volatility also caused significant extremes in […]
2021 Q4 Market Review
Despite the surge of new variants of Covid-19 around the World and the Federal Reserve getting ready to take their foot off the gas, markets largely climbed the “wall of worry” during the fourth quarter. The broad US bond market was down slightly for the quarter, although longer dated Treasury bonds ended the quarter up […]
2021 Q3 Market Review
The economic and geo-political cross currents combined to increase market volatility this quarter but that isn’t obvious from looking at the returns. The broad US bond market was flat for the quarter, with longer dated Treasury price volatility increasing, particularly toward the end of the quarter. The long end of the Treasury yield curve (20+ […]