The first quarter of 2023 is in the books, and many wonder what to make of the recent headlines. The Fed raising interest rates to combat inflation was still at the forefront of the nightly news. Then came along some negative events in the financial world, dominated by Silicon Valley Bank and its meltdown. Geopolitical…
Q4 – 2022: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
I am pretty sure that the Year 2022 will go down as the year when the Federal Reserve went to massive lengths to battle inflation. The highs we captured in 2021 quickly reversed as the Fed executed the most aggressive rate-hike path in decades. Granted, the war in Ukraine nor China’s zero Covid policy didn’t…
Q3 – 2022: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
While it may seem like a distant memory, Q3 started with optimism. We saw (potential) signs of inflation slowing, solid corporate earnings, and expectations that interest rate hikes might end sooner than later. But beyond mid-August, that optimism was eroded by sticky inflation data, geopolitical concerns, and Chairman Powell suggesting more “pain” was to come….
Remembering Summers Past
So many big events competed for our attention this summer … said nearly every investor, almost every summer, ever. We’re not making light of this summer’s uncertainties. Inflation is real, and needs to be managed; we also can’t rule out the possibility we’ll still see stagflation and/or a recession (although neither has happened yet). Heightened…
Q2 – 2022: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
Another volatile quarter has just come to a conclusion. Just when investors were hoping that inflation was in check, we realized that it might not really be. Other worries such as China’s COVID lockdowns, food and energy shortages, and the Russian war also contributed to the uncertainty. Let’s see how some of the major market…
Q1 – 2022: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
A volatile quarter has just come to a conclusion. Just when investors were hoping that 2022 would be a year of smooth, post-Covid normalization, things got funky (again). Supercharged global inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were enough to shake things up. While we learned that the new Omicron COVID strain wasn’t going to shut…
Q4 – 2021: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
While Q3 ended on a sour note (September), indexes made up for it with a strong Q4 to close out the year. Stocks continued to climb the proverbial “wall of worry”, overcoming concerns about inflation, Omicron, and failure of the fiscal stimulus (Build Back Better plan) getting passed. Here’s how some of the major market…
Q3 – 2021: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
The month of September ended on a sour note, with most indexes dropping for the first time in many months. The moderate decline was enough to erase the quarter’s prior gains, resulting in a relatively flat quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the quarter slightly negative, and the S&P 50 was slightly positive (see…
Q2 – 2021: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
Equity markets continued to move higher in the second quarter, and the year-to-date and 1-year rolling returns are looking superb! Almost too good to be true, some would say. But the uptrend continues as the pandemic is waning and the economy is booming. Let us not forget where we were one year ago – swimming…
Q1 – 2021: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
For those of you who tend to focus on the performance of your investments, this should be a great time to review your accounts! Specifically, the past one-year has been tremendous for most investments and asset classes. It’s hard to find stocks that have not appreciated from last March until this March, mainly since the…