Duct Tape the Fed
US inflation is still slowing, but it isn’t going away as quickly as many may have hoped. Consumer prices in January reflected an inflation rate 6.4%, higher than expected and only slightly less from 6.5% in December. Markets were hoping for 6.2% reading and the most...
Victory over inflation could be premature
It all seems too easy - after months of sky-high inflation, prices are finally coming down after the Fed hiked interest rates eight times. Fed Chair Jay Powell’s comment that he is already seeing signs of pricing pressure cooling off emboldened investors into...
The Fed flips the script and could flip it again in the next meeting
The Fed, which has long held the position that consumers would have to endure significant pain in order to control inflation flipped a switch on Wednesday citing that measurable progress has been made on disinflation to warrant a dovish stance on interest rates for...
The Fed is getting what they wanted but will they stop raising interest rates?
The US economy is cooling just like the Federal Reserve wants, but growth hasn’t stalled—also as the Fed wants. While US gross domestic product for the last quarter exceeded estimates, the central bank’s preferred inflation measure - PCE, slowed to its lowest pace in...
The Demise of 60/40 Stocks/Bonds Allocation
Following a year in which most time tested investment strategies failed miserably, Blackrock finally accepted that the 60/40 model which has been a bedrock of most asset management firms, financial advisors and 401K plans, has suffered the worst year since the...
The Times, They are A-Changin
Stocks pushed higher Friday as the three major market benchmarks booked their best weekly percentage gains since November. On the economic front, the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index climbed in January to its highest level in nine months, which followed...
What awaits us in 2023?
With few exceptions, the best and brightest in stock and bond markets failed to appreciate how the outbreak of inflation would upend the investing world in 2022. They failed to anticipate how the Fed would react, thinking rate hikes would be measured rather than...
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
t has been a tough 2022 for investors but our clients have done better than most mutual fund and hedge fund managers. Year to date, all of our clients' portfolios have outperformed the Nasdaq (down 34%) and 90% of our clients have outperformed the S&P 500 (down...
The Fed jolts the stock market once again
The Federal Reserve delivered a widely expected 50-basis-point rate hike this week, but surprised the markets by signaling rates would stay high through next year. At the meeting, the Fed revised their median prediction for core inflation in 2023 upwards by...