Week 7 Talking Points

February 19th marked one year since the pre-pandemic highs on the S&P500. We closed this week at 3906, or 15% higher for the one-year period. Small-Caps and Growth leading since last year’s highs. Weekly unemployment claims continue to be stubbornly high, coming in again above 850k and the four-week moving average…

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Week 6 Talking Points

New Cases Continue to Drop – More All Time Highs COVID data continues to be positive. New cases are down to 90k from 113k last week – hospitalizations are down to 64k from 84k last week. https://covidtracking.com/data/charts/us-all-key-metrics Small Caps and Energy powered ahead this week- SP600 up over 3.5% outperforming…

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Week 5 Talking Points

Positive COVID Data and Better Than Expected Earnings Drive the Market to New All-Time Highs Earnings have been coming in better than expected. According to FactSet, companies are reporting earnings that are 15% above expectations, well above the five-year average of 6.3%. Of the 55 S&P 500 companies that have provided…

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Week 4 Talking Points

All-Time Highs Followed by a Sharp Decline Monday marked the all-time closing high for the S&P 500 (3855) but by Friday, investors didn’t have much to celebrate as the week closed on a decidedly negative tone. There is much to be celebrated as the vaccine rollout is starting to ramp…

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Week 3 Talking Points

Election Rally  Crude oil is trading solidly in the mid-50s and the energy sector is up over 11% so far this year but is actually up 43% since election day. Small caps are also finding themselves in the middle of a massive election rally, having jumped 37% since Nov 3rd and…

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Week 1 Talking Points

The Santa Clause rally delivered this year. Happy New Year to everyone reading this – 2020 is over, let’s see what 2021 has in store for us. The clear winners of the last three months are small caps – they added another 6% this week too. Energy and financials won…

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Week 51 Talking Points

Stimulus – Fed Speak – All-Time Highs – Falling Dollar  After months of back and forth, it looks like there will be a $900 billion coronavirus “stimulus” package signed, possibly Monday. While the language of the bill is being finalized it is expected to include direct payments of $600, and…

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Week 50 Talking Points

The Rotation Continues As we close in on the end of the year, there some notable differences in the current trends. The rally has started to include smaller and non-tech companies. Even value is positive for the year now.  . Fixed Income 11/5/20 FOMC Statement      FOMC Minutes      Credit, Liquidity and…

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Week 45 Talking Points

Strong rebound after last week’s selloff.  The possibility of a divided congress seemed to outweigh both the spiking number of COVID cases and the possibly contested election. Easing political concerns will allow focus to be put back onto corporate earnings and of course how the COVID economy reshapes the landscape….

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