Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve (Fed) has been supporting financial markets by buying $120 billion of U.S. Treasury and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) each month. Currently, the Fed is in the process of reducing (tapering) the amount of asset purchases but is still adding to its balance sheet. However, meeting minutes…
The latest weekly data from the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) showed a sharp increase in the percentage of individual investors who are bearish (52.9%) about short-term market expectations, the second most bears of the past 10 years and the highest level since early April 2013. Even though the proportion of investors who are…
2022 has been one of the worst starts to a year ever for stocks. As of January 25, 2022, the S&P 500 is down 9.2% (on a closing basis) from the peak earlier this year, suggesting we are inching closer to a potential market correction of 10%, the first since March 2020. In fact, it…
Like other core fixed income sectors, investment grade corporate credit has had a tough start to the year. After losing 1.0% last year, investment grade corporate debt is off another 2.4% (through January 14) in 2022. However, the paper losses this year (and last year frankly) are not due to declining credit fundamentals or deteriorating…
Inflation soared 7% in 2021 according to Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as seen in the LPL Chart of the Day, its highest level since 1982. There was little consolation in the “core” reading (excluding food and energy). While a little tamer, it still rose 5.5%…
In today’s blog, we will take a look at some of the best charts and tables we shared all year. There are so many charts and tables that sum up how special 2021 was, but at the end of the day the fact that 2021 had the second most all-time highs ever probably tells the…
U.S. and International Equities Major Markets Lower The major equity markets finished the week lower, reversing some of last week’s gains on the back of this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. The Federal Reserve (Fed) took a hawkish stance on both inflation and thus interest rates. Growth sectors (information technology and consumer discretionary)…
U.S. and International Equities Major Markets Higher The major equity markets finished the week solidly higher, reversing last week’s declines. Traders took solace in the health reports that the effects of the Omicron variant may not be as much of a threat as originally feared. Developed international equities, as represented by the MSCI EAFE Index,…
After months of carefully communicating the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) plan to reduce its asset purchases toward the middle of 2022, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell seemingly sped up that timetable during his Congressional testimony last week. While not officially announced policy yet, the expectation is that the Fed will now accelerate its tapering plans and end…
Index Performance U.S. and International Equities Major Markets Lower The major equity markets finished the week lower. The markets continued to pull back following last Friday’s announcement concerning the new Omicron COVID-19 variant that has now spread globally. The S&P 500 Index suffered its worst two-day performance in over a year this week. Only the…
