A year of somewhat volatile gains for bonds provided a sharp counterpoint to the volatility global stocks experienced over the past year:

By the end of trading, though, most of the about-face had been regained. The gain/news/plunge/rebound cycle exemplifies how fickle the stock market can be. Similarly, zoom out to the beginning of the year and we see that U.S. stocks have fully rebounded from a near 20% decline from a prior peak that arguably came primarily […]

In common parlance, to discount a statement means to not take the assertion at face value. In finance, to “discount” something means to develop a current value for a potential investment by estimating a future value and any cash flows in between. The market has been roiling with evolving themes and variations on both notions: […]

Different than the open-down-close-lower trading of Thursday and Friday, the first two days of this week suggest investors are beginning to dig in their heels. Their footing continues to slip, however, as the president and members of his administration maintain stances in defiance to the market’s obvious rejection of the tariff policies announced last Wednesday. […]

The U.S. stock market plunged April 4 and 5 as investors expressed grand concerns regarding the potential impacts of global tariff policy announced the Wednesday before. The response being inarguably negative, the primary points we broadly resolved from the days’ trends include: That’s the Brief Hearkening back to the COVID-19 era, severe back-to-back declines in […]

Much as we figured in last month’s commentary, market volatility has only increased as the current administration has sought to implement its domestic and geopolitical agendas. Hard to tell what’s driving the turbulence, though we’d have to think that folks are more concerned about the potential for tariff policy to upset the domestic growth cart. […]

With the new U.S. presidential administration comes a range of distinct methods of governing. Among that list is a seemingly blunt-force approach to trade management that over the past few days has resulted in more than a few market gyrations. We could discuss the specifics, but as soon as we might, they’re likely to change. […]

At today’s close, shares in U.S. chipmaker Nvidia Corp (NVDA) are off just under 17% after Chinese generative artificial intelligence (genAI) startup DeepSeek released an update to its large language model (or LLM, in shorthand the technology that provides the underpinnings of genAI capabilities). The update purports to radically reduce the cost of building and […]

Our experience during the various boom-bust cycles of this millennium suggests themes built upon the sandy ground of indefensible valuations eventually erode. Relative gains may come, then, from having more heavily emphasized those stocks with sounder footings. Here again, the current environment presents value-minded U.S. equity market investors with a conundrum: Compared to…? It’s become […]

Over the next few weeks, attention almost assuredly will remain focused on the potential ramifications of the incoming Trump presidency. With policy specifics still light, we’ll offer what we find a more immediately relevant review of U.S. stocks: their present collective valuation. By most any measure, U.S. stocks are more expensive than they have been […]