Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Feb. 12 – Feb. 18 Markets shrug off hot inflation data — then get nervous again Markets were pretty stoic when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January came in higher than expected last week. Although CPI declined, it only dropped from 6.5% in December to 6.4% in…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Feb. 5 – Feb. 11 Jobs number makes markets nervous The surprisingly high January jobs number sent waves of anxiety through U.S. markets last week, before Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell gave a speech reinforcing the widely held view that the Fed will stop or pause rate hikes…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Jan. 29 – Feb. 4 Fed — and the economy — may be slowing, but jobs are still strong The Federal Reserve met last week and raised rates by 25 basis points (0.25%), bringing the fed funds rate to 4.5-4.75%. In less than a year, we’ve gone from…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Jan. 22 – 28 Fourth quarter 2022 stronger than expected; U.S. notches 2.1% growth for the year The initial reading of fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) came in at 2.9%. While the reading was higher than the consensus estimate, it was much lower than the Atlanta Fed’s forecast…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Jan. 15 – 21 Fed officials refuse to soften stance despite lower inflation and weak earnings It’s always a good idea to watch those Federal Reserve officials and their remarks. Markets were set to rejoice last week, after the December Producer Price Index (PPI) came in at -0.5%, well…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Jan. 8 – 14 Inflation is lower — but still stubbornly high Markets were eagerly awaiting the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) number last Thursday to see if inflation is continuing to decline. The good news: It is. The bad news: Not very quickly. The headline number (the…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Jan. 1 – 7 Could Fed’s work be working? We rounded the corner into a new year, and stocks ended the first full week of 2023 on a high note, with each of the three major markets up more than 2% on Friday. The markets were buoyed by…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Dec. 25 – 31 Ringing out the old Unfortunately, Santa didn’t have a rally in his bag to close out 2022. Instead, the Grinch had his way in the last week of the year, as the major domestic equity indexes closed slightly lower on the second consecutive week…

VIEW PDF VERSION Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Dec. 18 – Dec. 24 Confidence? Not so much. As expected, last week was pretty quiet just before Christmas, with a decided negative tilt. Wednesday was a strong day; consumer confidence came in at 108.3, up from 100.2 in November and well in excess of…

VIEW PDF VERSION Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Dec. 11 – 17 Dr. Jerome, Mr. Powell In typical Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde fashion, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell first gave markets hope that after the Fed raised rates at its final meeting of 2022, they might pause to watch what a 4.25% Fed Funds…