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…
Q4 – 2020: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
Whew – that was fun right? Well, maybe not that fun. The roller coaster ride, otherwise known as the Year 2020, was quite a doozy. This time of the year always leads us to review and reflect on what just took place, and I always review portfolios to see if we make changes. We should…
Q3 – 2020: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
And we’re in the final stretch…of an eventful 2020 that is. More excitement and volatility are all but certain, as the election and progress of COVID-19 are closely watched. For now, let’s review some of the various index returns from the past couple of months: Index 3rd Quarter 1 YR S&P 500 Large Cap Index…
Q2 – 2020: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
Wall Street wrapped up the second quarter last week. It was one for the record books. The recovery from the “Coronavirus Contraction” has been substantial, but in many ways is still incomplete. April was a particularly strong month, and the entire quarter went down as one of the best in over 20 years. Lockdowns have…
Q1 – 2020: Brandon’s Quarterly Market Commentary
Well, that was quick. Feeling good after a strong finish to 2019, we’ve seen some dramatic changes happen in a very short period of time. Let’s call it the “Coronavirus Contraction”. It came swiftly, and it came with force. And while the economy was on a roll to start the year, in a matter of weeks, we were…