Current Perspectives

As we enter 2017, significant policy changes are anticipated in the U.S. that could impact both U.S. and global economies.  There are a lot of unknowns and different opinions about what to expect next. Looking back at 2016, the year got off to a rocky start, tumbling 10% in the first two weeks—the worst start […]

The market once again confounded the instincts of nervous investors and went up, instead of down, during Q3 2016.  What worried investors last quarter included the Brexit scare and potential Fed rate hikes. You may recall, on June 24th (not very long ago) headlines read: “Brexit Stuns Markets, Dow Falls 600 Points”  Yet 100 days following […]

The U.S. has continued to chug along at a decent pace under favorable economic conditions (full employment, low inflation, low energy costs), and is on track to produce growth of about 2% this year.  Despite some scary headlines, and resulting short term volatility, U.S. companies have produced strong earnings.  U.S. equity markets mostly eked out […]

The first quarter of 2016 brought small positive returns in many of the U.S market indexes, which means investors survived – for now, at least – the worst start to a calendar year ever for the U.S. stock market.  The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index (a broad measure of U.S. Stocks) ended the quarter up […]