2018 and older

February 15, 2016 A big news topic this week was negative interest rates. While our Fed has started to raise interest rates, other major economies are still cutting rates in a desperate attempt to stimulate growth. Even as overseas rates…

February 8, 2016 One of my daughters works in international sales and recently returned from her first visit to South Africa full of tales and observations.  She was particularly entranced with the beauty of the country, especially in and around…

January  2016 2015 started out with great promise.  Analysts were universally upbeat about the market’s outlook expecting S&P 500 revenues to grow 2.6% and earnings to grow 8.1% over 2014.  2015 was also the third year of the presidential election…

February 1, 2016 As the market continued to trade in an erratic pattern last week, I spent a lot of time checking the pulses of my clients to see how they were holding up.  During a recent call with a long-term client…

January 25, 2016 Will we ever learn? I was looking at the Wall Street Journal on Thursday this past week and was surprised to see the headline “UBS Redeems Two Energy Products”. Since energy is one of the hot button…

February 22, 2016 How many times have you been stopped at an intersection of a busy city and seen a man with a handmade cardboard sign saying, “Homeless and Hungry”?  Many of us try not to make eye contact, while…

January 19, 2016 The sluggish US markets of 2015 have been quickly followed by pessimism and volatility.  Based on how my phone was ringing following last week’s pathetic market move, anxiety levels are starting to rise.  In last week’s Weekly…

January 11, 2016 The big picture this past week was terrible.  Looking around the world we saw a world begging for shelter from rough markets without anywhere to hide.  China’s market is dropping with no real remedy in sight. The…

January 4, 2016 A nice long weekend gave me plenty of time for quiet reflective work, reading, and planning. 2015 is being described as a “dull” year for the US stock market.  Last year we saw the S&P 500 Index…

A trade shortened week with Christmas on a Friday and the traditional early close on a Thursday created very little in market action worthy of commentary.  However, conversation and observation were nonetheless present, just in a different but perhaps more…