2013 was a year of tremendous resilience in domestic equity markets. The equity markets seemed to ignore the rapid rise in interest rates last spring due to the expected Federal Reserve “Fed” tapering and the government shutdown in the fall. Instead it focused on the improving, stable global economies as domestic stock markets reached record […]

As investor complacency increased throughout the second quarter, significant volatility returned by the end of the quarter to the equity, bond and commodity markets. The sell-off was prompted by the Federal Reserve’s release of their June minutes “hinting” at a possible pullback on its unprecedented low-rate policy. Especially hard hit were bonds and dividend-paying stocks. […]

In the fourth quarter, equity markets generally finished in positive territory but retreated towards the end of December as fiscal cliff negotiations in Washington D.C. bogged down with no resolution in sight. International equity markets, developed (MSCI EAFE Index) and emerging (MSCI Emerging Market Index), had the strongest quarterly returns, up 6.6% and 5.6% respectively.

As we mentioned in the last newsletter, an unsurprising correction (a 10% drop in the S&P 500 from its 2012 highs) occurred in the second quarter. The main causes of the pullback were increasing evidence of slower global economic growth and sovereign debt concerns spreading to Spain and Italy with 15 Spanish banks downgraded recently […]

As we enter a new year, we thank you for your patience through these difficult times. We are a few years into the post-crash recovery.  While it is a tepid recovery at best, this low degree makes some sense.  Through debt, our country and several others have tested and explored the limitations of leverage and […]

We recommend staying committed to your long-term strategy and if appropriate gradually increasing your equity allocation.  If the market pulls back further from these levels, we would accelerate the process in a disciplined manner…