What a difference a year makes. Do you recall how 2016 started? The United States’ Federal Reserve announced the first interest rate hike in years in December of 2015, and the S&P 500 would then plummet almost 11% over the following 8 weeks. At the same time, Japan and a number of European countries initiated […]
Raise your hand if you saw this coming. The Dow Jones Industrial average ran its consecutive positive close streak to eleven days in a row with its close of +9.1 points on Friday, February 24th. That also marks the 11th straight record high, which is the longest such streak since 1987. Three more positive closes […]
As Chinese New Year celebrations wind down, it’s fitting to recall an expression that has been attributed to the Chinese for generations. The expression “May you live in interesting times” has an origin that is, ironically, interesting itself. Regardless of its origin, upon closer examination, the expression seems not to be a blessing at all, […]
2016 Recap 2016 is set to go down as one of the most eventful years for investors since the global financial crisis. It was a crazy ride, and the surprises came from everywhere. The vote in the UK – the “Brexit” – shocked the world, as did the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, when […]
President Trump The trading days leading up to the U.S. presidential election did not feel great. For eight straight trading days, the stock market lost value. It was the first time the market had experienced eight consecutive down days since 2008. Fortunately, this year’s eight-day funk amounted to the S&P 500 losing only about 3% […]
Albert Camus, the French philosopher and author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, probably had October on his mind when he wrote: “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Camus died in January of 1960, so his last October among the living was in 1959. If he’d have […]