Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary June 09, 2025 The Markets Employment was top of mind for financial markets last week. Economists and investors hoped May employment information would provide insight to the state of the United States economy, as well as clues about when the Federal Reserve (Fed) may lower the federal funds rate again. Employment data arrives in two reports that offer different perspectives...

Weekly Market Commentary June 02, 2025 The Markets Consumers were feeling cautiously optimistic. When people talk about the United States economy, they’re usually referring to gross domestic product (GDP), which is the value of all goods and services produced in here. For the first quarter of this year, U.S. GDP was nearly $30 trillion. That’s a huge number. It would take 14 years for a military j...

Weekly Market Commentary May 27, 2025 The Markets Nobody likes to balance the budget. Some pundits said Moody’s rating downgrade of U.S. Treasuries was a nothing burger. After all, the rating change didn’t provide investors with any new information. Moody’s was the third rating service to lower U.S. government bond ratings. S&P Global downgraded U.S. Treasuries in 2011, and Fitch Ratings follo...

Weekly Market Commentary May 19, 2025 The Markets Last week, the U.S. stock market showed why it’s a good idea to stay invested through bouts of volatility. Major U.S. stock indices notched sizeable gains as investors celebrated a trade truce with China and better-than-expected inflation numbers, while brushing off a tepid consumer sentiment reading. Here’s what happened: The administration negoti...

Weekly Market Commentary May 12, 2025 The Markets The winds of uncertainty are blowing, and the waters are choppy. In recent weeks, United States stock markets saw steady gains, recovered from the April downturn as investors set aside uncertainty,” reported Connor Smith of Barron’s. Last week, investors became more cautious as they considered: Trade successes and negotiations. Last week, President...

Weekly Market Commentary May 05, 2025 The Markets American companies did well in the first quarter. During earnings season, publicly held companies tell investors how they performed during the previous quarter with a particular focus on earnings, which reflect company profits. Currently, we’re more than halfway through earnings season, and companies in the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index...

Weekly Market Commentary April 28, 2025 The Markets How’s everybody feeling? If you said, “Not great,” you’re not alone. There is an abundance of negative sentiment today. Many people – from consumers to small business owners, and from asset managers to investors – are feeling less optimistic. Here’s the data. The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Survey’s final data for Aprilshowed that...

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...