• US stocks have traded flat over the past week in an environment of growing uncertainty about the health of the economy and the trajectory of Fed policy. Yesterday’s sharply lower job openings report was followed this morning by additional data suggesting that the economy may be slowing. Nevertheless, another senior Fed official spoke today...Read More

Between a Rock and a Hard Place… After a year of extraordinary volatility in stock markets and historic losses in bond markets, investors might have had reason to hope for a calmer start to 2023. Unfortunately, the opposite proved to be the case as the first quarter was marked by both continued market turbulence and...Read More

2022: A Series of Unfortunate Events… The year was one of tumult for most economies as growth concerns, geopolitical conflicts, and inflationary pressures weighed heavily across the globe. 2022 opened with ongoing supply chain and production disruptions from the Covid pandemic which were sharply worsened by the February invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The Ukrainian...Read More

A Difficult Year for The Economy Even with Enormous Jobs Growth 2022 has been an extremely challenging year for both the U.S. and the global economy as the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have disrupted global production. The OECD is currently estimating that Russia’s invasion will cost the global economy $2.8 trillion...Read More

Why Does 2022 Seem So Awful? After a mixed but relatively flat first quarter, the market’s wheels fully fell off the bus in the second quarter and the markets have since sharply weakened with a broad selloff in stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies. Following three consecutive years of appreciable stock gains, the market closed out the...Read More

Continued Inflation, Ongoing Supply Chain Disruptions, and War in Ukraine As we started 2022, the markets were focused on how global central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, were going to address elevated inflationary levels and ongoing supply chain issues. Outside of Russia’s Putin, no one would have thought that by mid-quarter, the world’s attention...Read More

Can We Please Just Put COVID Behind Us? When looking back on 2021, the financial markets seem like a blur. Despite the year’s turmoil, the U.S. markets still posted strong double-digit returns. The S&P Index returned 28.7% for the year, while Dumaine’s stock benchmark, the Russell 1000 Value, advanced almost as much with a 25.2%...Read More

Third Quarter Wrap Up The third quarter of 2021 was a roller coaster with elevated inflation fears, talks of reduced monetary easing, supply chain bottlenecks, higher energy prices, and rising interest rates. As a result, the market’s fear gauge climbed by almost 50% during the quarter. When coupled with a fourth wave of COVID, which...Read More

Second Quarter Wrap Up The June-ended quarter was remarkably different than this year’s first quarter in that a combination of vaccine rollouts and stimulus payments had America ready to start embracing a post-pandemic life. As the economy continued its recovery from COVID, the second quarter marked one of the best first half years in the...Read More

First Quarter Wrap Up The first quarter’s end marked the best 12 months in the history of the S&P 500. After hitting bottom at the onset of the COVID pandemic, the broader market rallied more than 70% with the average stock almost doubling during this time period. Even the Russell 1000 Value, which does not...Read More