2012 Year End Perspective  2012 was a year filled with uncertainty. The final results are quite surprising considering all the sweat and hand wringing that filled the year. It is not surprising that the market does exactly what was not predicted. The market indexes all finished higher: DOW up 7.3% S&P up 13.4% Nasdaq up 15.9% Nattering nabobs of negativism "In the United States today, we have more than our share of nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their own 4-H club -- … [Read more...]

The market is having a very good year so far. The S&P 500 is up 14.56% year to date. Prices are being driven by our Federal Reserve policy, as noted in Barron;s 10-1-2012 http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111904414004578016363017457512.html?mod=BOL_hps_dc “With the Fed providing easy money, Nordberg is betting that inflation will bolster growth stocks. "It's all wildly inflationary, and stocks are real assets," he says. Volatility and change has been the rule this year. The … [Read more...]

Up Year, down quarter Q2 2012 has been filled with downs and ups. The volatility of EURO /Banking /Government debt crisis has returned to the market like a summer ritual. The numbers year to date are actually quite good. The Global Index MXWO:IND is up 4.49%, while the US markets are up 8.31% SPX:IND.   The markets remain very nervous and each day seems to have mass psychology that oscillates like the weather. Equity portfolios are being rocked by daily moves driven by relief that the … [Read more...]

“Stocks up 12%, best quarterly start since 1998.” Now, that is a headline to be grateful for. The market has confounded the pessimism of most of 2011 with a great start.  The Dow is up 8.14%ytd and the NASDAQ is up a whopping 18.67%ytd.   Now what? Well, it will never be easy. You can expect that the political events leading to the presidential election of 2012 are going to be very tough for the market.   The reality is that it is ALWAYS tough. This is the market that we have and this … [Read more...]

Perspective The market has posted a positive quarter. Autum 2011 was another volatile period marked buy a fixation on Europe and the seemingly unending problems of the inflexible Euro currency. For the Year 2011 markets in the US finished nearly even, but global investments have suffered. Massive flows of assets continued to pour into bonds. Interest rates are near all time lows. Pervasive Negativity Since the bottom of the market in March 2009, there has been persistent and growing fear of a … [Read more...]

Perspective The market has posted a significantly negative quarter. The summer produced a political spectacle in Washington, D.C.  An extremely divisive debate regarding an increase to the debt ceiling produced a demonstration of the dramatic dysfunction of the US Federal Government in it’s current state. The markets spent the summer in an increasingly volatile pattern. The dramatic swings have been a reflection of the lack of confidence in government and lingering fears from the financial … [Read more...]