After finishing the first quarter at depressed levels, growing evidence of an economic recovery as well as highly supportive government monetary and fiscal stimulus helped drive the S&P 500 20% higher in Q2, its biggest move in over twenty years. Remarkably at one point, the index even revisited unchanged territory for the year. However, the […]

A lifetime’s worth of market action was packed into an unbelievably chaotic first quarter of 2020. After an early +5% move to an all-time high of 3,386 on February 19th, the quickly spreading coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, along with the collapse of the oil markets, pushed the S&P 500 down 34% to a new multi-year low. […]

  After a harrowing end to 2018, which left the S&P 500 at a depressed starting point, an accommodative Federal Reserve and progress on trade wars drove the index to new all-time highs in 2019. Stocks gained ground each quarter, including a +9.1% fourth quarter move, finishing the year with a +31.5% total return, the […]

  The S&P 500 continued to show remarkable resilience in the third quarter, gaining 1.7% to close at 2,977 despite a spreading global economic slowdown and continued lack of a US-China trade deal. This result brings the YTD total return of the index to 20.6%. The top performing sectors for the quarter were Utilities, Real […]

  Despite a continued economic slowdown and lack of a US-China trade deal, the robust 2019 market rally continued in the second quarter, with the S&P 500 moving +4.3% to close at 2,941. For the first six months of the year, the total return of the index was +18.5%, the best first half since 1997. […]

  The market soared in the first three months of 2019, with the S&P 500 making its largest quarterly gain since the third quarter of 2009. A relatively inexpensive and oversold market at the beginning of the year had positioned stocks for a bounce. Fading fears regarding potential Fed missteps, interest rates, and trade wars […]

Following a solid first nine months of 2018, the market reversed course and cascaded lower in Q4 due to, among other things, fears that a Federal Reserve misstep and trade wars would lead to a global recession in 2019.  On December 24th, the S&P 500 index hit a new 52-week low just three months after […]

Stocks posted a banner third quarter as the S&P 500 hit a new all-time high and generated its best quarterly return in nearly five years.  Domestic market volatility remained low as investors looked beyond escalating trade rhetoric and weak international market action to focus on a strong US economy.  For the quarter, the S&P 500 […]

Following a volatile and slightly negative first quarter, relative calm returned to the markets for most of Q2 as investors digested continued positive earnings results from domestic companies.  For the quarter, the S&P 500 closed at 2,718, generating a total return of +3.4% and bringing the total return for the index to +2.6% in the […]

The first three months of 2018 saw an end to the S&P 500’s nine-quarter winning streak as investor concerns about rising interest rates, the potential for a Fed policy misstep, and fears of a global trade war outweighed extremely positive corporate earnings. For the quarter, the S&P 500 closed at 2,640, generating a total return […]