by P.J. DiNuzzo October 14, 2014 Volatility Is Up. Or Is It? Professional investors know something that most people find impossible to believe: that the threat of scary ups and downs in the markets is by far the best friend of the long-term investor. Why? Because over the long term, stocks have provided returns far […]
by P.J. DiNuzzo October 20, 2014 Recent Market Observations The US markets have been relatively more volatile recently with the Dow and S&P 500 posting their worst intraday decline this week in nearly three years. There are a host of reasons for recent drops, including but not limited to worries about slowing growth in Europe, […]
by P.J. DiNuzzo October 27, 2014 Why Losses Really Do Matter Everybody who told us that the steep market drops earlier this month wouldn’t last can rightly claim they’re right. When the S&P 500 was down 7.4% during a two-week selloff, there was no way to know whether we’d have to endure more of the […]
by P.J. DiNuzzo October 30, 2014 Good News For a Change One leading candidate for the “most under-reported story” of 2014 is the remarkable drop in the U.S. government’s budget shortfall. The final numbers announced by the U.S. Treasury for fiscal 2014 (ending September 30) shows a $483 billion deficit. That’s about $1 trillion lower […]
by P.J. DiNuzzo November 6, 2014 Election Returns Now that the midterm elections are safely behind us, a lot of people are wondering how politics will impact their investment returns. The conventional wisdom is that divided government–where one party holds the White House while the other controls the House, the Senate or both–is good for the […]
by P.J. DiNuzzo November 22, 2014 Cheap Oil Gets Cheaper The economic news that everybody is talking about lately is the sudden unexpected drop in oil prices. One type of oil, West Texas Intermediate crude, has fallen from over $140 a barrel in the Summer of 2008, and $115 a barrel as recently as June, […]
by P.J. DiNuzzo November 25, 2014 Relative Prosperity You might have read that the U.S. investment markets are jittery on the news that Japan has experienced two consecutive quarters of economic decline—the official definition of a recession. But if you turn the news around, it offers us a reminder that, however much we complain about […]
by P.J. DiNuzzo December 26, 2014 New Policies for Growth As the U.S. economy has slowly, steadily lumbered out of the Great Recession, the biggest drag on recovery has been housing. As you can see from the accompanying chart, existing home sales have never recovered their 2007 levels, despite several government stimulus efforts (which represent […]
by P.J. DiNuzzo January 6, 2015 How Do the Markets Really Work? We all do it. But what do we really know about investing? A recent post about investing wisdom features a lot of interesting (and often overlooked) facts and figures, plus some insights from Warren Buffett, Jeremy Siegel, William Bernstein, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman […]
by P.J. DiNuzzo January 13, 2015 2015 Investment Report Looking back on 2014, people are going to say it was a good year to be an investor. They won’t remember how uncertain the journey felt right up to the last day of a year that saw the S&P 500 close at a record level on 53 […]
