Marching Onward and Upward In 2019, the stock market performed well beyond what most investors would have reasonably anticipated.  Powered by a domestic economy that refused to fall into recession and supported by the easing of interest rates and some progress on the trade front, the S&P 500 rose 29% for the year.  With those stellar returns now behind us, [...]

"Whenever You Find Yourself on the Side of the Majority, it is Time to Pause and Reflect." In our last letter we noted that the length of our current economic expansion had moved into record territory, and it continues. However, now that we are 125 months into the longest expansion going back to 1854, investors are working hard to convince [...]

Economic Strength with a Dose of Uncertainty During the first four months of 2019, the S&P 500 advanced almost 18% as stocks quickly snapped back from the dive they took in the final quarter of last year.  A shift in policy by the Federal Reserve, in which they no longer anticipate additional interest rate increases this year, ignited the V-shaped [...]

Fear Recedes as Quickly as it Arrived During the first quarter of 2019, the S&P 500 advanced 13% as stocks quickly snapped back from the dive they took in the final quarter of last year. A shift in policy by the Federal Reserve, in which they no longer anticipate additional interest rate increases this year, ignited the V-shaped recovery for [...]