The debt ceiling debate is dominating the headlines. In a nutshell, the debt ceiling is a limit that is set by the U.S. Congress on the total amount of debt that the Federal government is legally allowed to borrow. Since the 1960’s, the debt ceiling has been raised a total of 78 times. There have been…
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With inflation and recession fears dominating headlines, both stocks and bonds continued their fall in the second quarter of 2022. At times, it useful to put short term market conditions in the context of longer market cycles. If we go back to the January 1, 2009, we observe that the S&P 500 (with dividends reinvested)…
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As the global pandemic extended into 2021, the markets continued the remarkable run that began the third week of March 2020. Since that time, US large company stocks, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, have more than doubled in value. For 2021, the broad US stock market generated a positive return of more than…
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The terms “stock market” and “economy” are often used interchangeably, but they are not one in the same. Perhaps this has never been more evident than over the past several months. The state of the economy, according to most measures, is bleak, with economic activity contracting, an unemployment rate of more than 10%, and an…
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After a surprisingly strong year for stocks in 2019, the new decade got off to a rough start for investors with one of the most abrupt and rapid stock market declines on record. In just 5 weeks, the S&P 500 declined by more than 33%. Overall, U.S. stocks ended the quarter down about 20%, while…
DetailsIt’s hard to think all the way back to January 2016, but the year began with a bit of a shock when US stocks had their worst start in history. Then came the Brexit vote in June, when non-US Stocks dropped approximately 7% over a three week period. And then came the US Presidential election, when US stocks dropped approximately 5% in the weeks leading up to the election.
But by the end of the year, those investors who stayed the course saw positive returns across the board.