Newsletter and Blog

This week, we have been focused on finalizing the details of the Client Appreciation event and ran out of time to complete our normal update.

This is the second week of earnings for S&P 500 companies. According to Eric Kuby of North Star, 14% have already reported and 81% of those have beaten estimates, making for a good start. 120 more companies are expected to report, combined with a Brexit vote and the remaining economic calendar reports, it should be a dynamic week on Wall Street.

At present we are seeing the market respond to increase optimism of the trade war cease fire. I am not very optimistic this will last, but at present, it feels better than the alternative.

We have much economic data that is tracked and produced every week around the world. This past reporting period, we have seen evidence of the concerns around a recession begin to show up. Make no mistake, I am not indicating a recession is approaching, yet. I am just saying that some of the data is confirming concerns.

You have got to admit that the market conditions have been anything but "normal" for about the past 18-24 months. We have seen a bear-market decline of 20% from October thru December of 2018, only to rebound by March of 2019. This has not happened in the past several years.

I'm on the back deck of a newly purchased home of a friend and my insurance agent. Our wives sit cattycorner from us, and we are all talking about a variety of subjects when one in particular arises-aging. They are about 15 or so years younger than my wife and I, and as a result, they have different opinions and views than we do. It's no big deal until we all seem to converge on this one single point.