Category Archives: Trends
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How Investors Can Prepare for the Brexit Vote
06-15-2016Delivering on an earlier campaign promise to let the people decide the fate of Great Britain and the European Union (EU), current Prime Minister David Cameron will bring the referendum to a vote on June 23, 2016. The stakes are significant and could have both short and long term implications on worldwide stock markets as well as the economies of Great Britain and the Euro zone as a whole. ... Read More
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7 Key Forecasts for 2016
01-13-2016While 2016 may end up looking a lot like 2015 in terms of stock market returns in the U.S., intermittent periods of stock market volatility, endless debates over potential Federal Reserve interest rate hikes and overseas economic uncertainty, we believe ... Read More
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Putting China in Perspective
01-07-2016The precipitous fall of the Chinese stock market in the initial trading days of 2016 has certainly resulted in a degree of shock and awe across the globe for investors. While the pace of the decline in prices of the ... Read More
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A Choppy September Could Lead into a Strong 4th Quarter
09-08-2015Coming off of a volatile month of August, where the S&P 500 index fell by over 6% on a total return basis, many stock market investors are looking for indications of what lies ahead for the final four months of ... Read More
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Is this THE Big Market Correction?
08-25-2015In addition to global economic contagion fears related to ongoing activities in China and market impact fears over what was presumed to be a likely interest rate hike by the Fed in September, we believe that a large part of ... Read More
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The Downside of Lower Oil Prices in the U.S.
12-03-2014Brent Crude oil, arguably the most recognized global benchmark of oil prices, is currently trading at under $70 a barrel and there is a growing likelihood that it could trade lower, or remain near these price levels, for some period ... Read More
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What Can the Weather Teach Us About Interest Rates?
05-27-2014In April, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced that its preliminary metric for how quickly our economy grew in the first three months of 2014 was annualized growth of 0.1%. That doesn’t seem very quick at all. Economists ... Read More
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Asset Class Returns during Previous Fed Tightenings
09-05-2013The Federal Funds Rate is the interest rate at which institutions lend funds maintained at the Federal Reserve (“Fed”) to other institutions. The Fed Funds Rate is often looked at as a benchmark for other interest rates and has a profound influence on overall economic activity as its level can either help to stimulate the economy or control inflation pressures. The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) sets targets for the Fed Funds Rate and looks to achieve these targets through their own open market operations. Following the market meltdown of 2008 – early 2009, the Fed adopted an accommodative stance by lowering interest rates, through various operations including quantitative easing, to historic lows with an overarching goal of stimulating the economy through less expensive sources of credit. Now that the economic recovery is getting to a point where the Fed believes that the U.S. economy may be able to stand on its own two legs, the Fed will be in a position to tighten (i.e. be less accommodative) by raising their Fed Funds target rate. This then begs the question as to which asset classes have historically fared better, from a total return perspective, when the Federal Funds rate was increased in previous years ... Read More
