All posts tagged: 2023

Feeling Weary?… Then Zoom Out!

2023 Q4 Market Commentary…

Rising interest rates lower the present value of future earnings for companies, which can cause stock prices to decline. Furthermore, the attraction to own fixed interest rate investments like CD’s and money market funds vs. stock market investments increases as interest rates move higher. Fixed interest rate investments tend to move in tandem up and down with inflation rates while stocks often act inversely.

The S&P 500 reversed lower this past quarter due to rising interest rates in addition to several other factors including consumer and commercial credit tightening, reduced personal savings rates, weakening housing data, geopolitical uncertainty, commercial real estate default risk, higher gas prices, to name a few. Still, there doesn’t seem to be a sense of panic in markets, but there are signs of exhaustion. Many of the mega cap growth stocks that buoyed the stock market performance in the first quarter of the year started to wane, as the NASDAQ was the weakest performing sector in Q3, albeit still up significantly for the year. Here are the numbers:

Future BrightFeeling Weary?… Then Zoom Out!
read more

What’s In Store for 2023?

2023 Q1 Market Commentary…

The $1.7 Trillion bipartisan spending bill pushed through by Congress at the end of the year was a kick to the gut for investors who were hoping we’d see inflation abate more quickly. A leading research company, Hedgeye, describes it best saying, “We remain in a new, higher inflation volatility regime brought on by deglobalization, confounding energy policies, war, and a wholesale disregard for fiscal prudence at a time of record government indebtedness.”1

2022 was a slog of gradual, but continual stock and bond values erosion. With the lone exception being the energy sector, every other U.S. stock sector finished 2022 in the red.2 Unfortunately, bonds didn’t provide any shelter either, as yields spiked in the middle of the year, causing bond values to drop significantly. Let’s call it what it was – a “woodshed year”.

1st Quarter Picture of Net Returns

Future BrightWhat’s In Store for 2023?
read more