Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary April 14, 2025 The Markets All eyes on the bond market. The scale of the tariffs introduced by the administration shocked investors, sparking a roller coaster of a week for stock markets. Last week, U.S. stocks: Rallied on a rumor. Fell when the rumor was recognized as a rumor. Rose when President Trump paused reciprocal tariffs on most countries for 90-days. Fell as inves...

April 07, 2025 The Markets “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” The advice offered by Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If—” resonated last week. A sharp escalation in trade tensions sparked a stock market downturn despite news that the United States economy created far more jobs in March than economists had expected, reported Lucia Mutikani of Reuters. Late Wednesday, President...

Weekly Market Commentary March 31, 2025 The Markets Risk-on. Risk-off. If you read the financial press, you may have seen the terms “risk-on” and “risk-off”.  When investing, there is a risk-return spectrum. Stocks typically have higher risk and higher return potential than high-quality bonds. High-quality bonds have lower risk and lower return potential than stocks, although they typically h...

Weekly Market Commentary March 24, 2025 The Markets The market whisperer… Last week, the Federal Reserve (Fed) left the federal funds rate unchanged, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell soothed markets. He explained that conditions in the labor market were broadly in balance and inflation had eased significantly over the past two years. Overall, the possibility of recession, while rising, remained low. Ma...

Weekly Market Commentary March 17, 2025 The Markets A correction and a bounce. Last week, the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index moved into correction territory. The Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq) was already in a correction, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) was close, reported Paul R. LaMonica of Barron’s. A correction occurs when the value of an index drops 10 percent below its...

Weekly Market Commentary March 10, 2025 The Markets What do weather and investing have in common?  From 1991 to 2020, the average temperature of the United States was 54.7° Fahrenheit. Of course, that doesn’t mean the temperature in every state on every day was 54.7°F. The weather varied dramatically from place to place and month to month. The same is true of investment averages. At the end o...

Weekly Market Commentary March 03, 2025 The Markets Is it supposed to be doing that? At the end of last year, economists believed the chance of a recession in 2025 was relatively low. In December, economist Torsten Sløk wrote, “The outlook for the US economy remains strong with no signs of a major slowdown going into 2025.” The economy has not been performing as expected, though. “The U.S. Citi Ec...

Weekly Market Commentary February 24, 2025 The Markets A difference of opinion. Broadly speaking, there are two types of investors: individual investors and institutional investors. Individual investors buy and sell investments to grow their personal wealth. This group of investors often works with financial advisors as they pursue their financial goals. Individual investors tend to invest smaller...

Weekly Market Commentary February 18, 2025 The Markets Why are stock markets wary of tariffs? In two of the last three weeks, tariff announcements led to late week stock market sell-offs. Stocks quickly recovered lost value, but uncertainty about the administration’s trade policy and the potential impact of that policy on U.S. companies remained. That’s likely to be the case until it becomes clear...

Weekly Market Commentary February 10, 2025 The Markets Optimism headed south on Friday. After rising for most of the week, stock markets lost momentum last Friday as economic data raised doubts about further Federal Reserve rate cuts, reported Rita Nazareth of Bloomberg. Late in the day, President Trump announced new tariffs would be imposed this week, and stocks dropped into negative territory. C...