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

2020 Wrap Up 2020 is a year almost all were glad to say goodbye to. However, most investors felt quite the opposite as the U.S. financial markets hit all-time highs: the S&P 500 advanced almost 17% and the NASDAQ, led by the FANGM stocks, returned an astonishing 44%. In addition, even value stocks rallied sharply...Read More

Third Quarter Wrap Up With the stock market having rebounded sharply from its March meltdown, the S&P is now up a staggering 55% from its Spring lows. While the world continues to battle the COVID pandemic with the hopes of a vaccine or herd immunity continuing to be pushed back, the Federal Reserve has delivered...Read More

Second Quarter 2020 Wrap Up To the surprise of almost everyone, especially as it occurred in the face of a global pandemic which in turn drove a global economic lockdown, the S&P 500 produced its best quarterly return since the 4th quarter of 1987 with a gain of 20.5%. This astounding performance came in the...Read More

First Quarter Wrap Up As we started 2020, the prognosis for the global economy was solid. Little noticed though was news reports starting to come out of the Chinese city of Wuhan about a new flu-like disease. Oh, how the world has changed in a mere 3 months…. The United States has become the epicenter...Read More

2019 Wrap Up In 2019, we saw stocks and bonds stage an extraordinary run with the S&P 500 having its best year since 1997. Together, stocks and bonds had their biggest simultaneous gains in more than two decades. The market was up slightly more than 30% with the Information Technology sector showing an enormous rebound...Read More