We continue to view the bond market as a “return-free risk”. It is a very crowded trade, as institutions and individuals have fled what they perceive as riskier equity assets, for what they believe is solid income generated by bonds. Yet, with yields as low as they are today, it only takes a small move down in bond prices to wipe out…
The stock market started off the year exceptionally weak, with all major market indexes down double digit percentages going into the low on February 11. We believe much of the weakness was due to selling by foreign sovereign wealth funds, where the related country’s fiscal budget is heavily affected by the price of crude oil.
There’s a phrase no one wants to read in a sweeping report about the financial advisers who handle their savings: economy-wide misconduct. A new working paper by business school professors at the University of Chicago and University of Minnesota found that 7 percent of financial advisers have been disciplined for misconduct that ranges from putting clients in…
2015 is now in the books and hopefully the year was personally more rewarding than what the stock markets provided. Markets around the world were down in 2015; many had double digit losses. The NYSE Composite Index was down 6.4% for the year. The beginning of 2016 has not been rewarding either. In fact, the…
Most of the world’s oil production is controlled by state-run and/or state-owned enterprises. National oil company production policy is dictated by oil ministers of various OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers, with only the U.S. producers at a disadvantage in a not-so-free market. It is time for our government to recognize the vital national security role…
China’s growth may be slowing, but it’s for all the right reasons. U.S stocks on Thursday kicked off the start of October with losses, after nosediving last month as investors worried about slowing growth in China. True, the growth rate of the world’s second largest economy has declined from over 10% in past years to…
On Monday, August 24 the Dow Industrials closed down 588 points on fears over the effect of recent Chinese currency devaluation. Unlike many on Wall Street, Frank Beck saw the market’s decline as a very attractive buying opportunity. Watch the video for his comments on KVUE-TV.
INDEPENDENCE DAY We at hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend, celebrating the United States Independence. We would like to thank everyone who served in one of our military branches, helping maintain our freedom. The United States is the home of the free, because of the brave. GREECE Greece has been in the spotlight…
We first use a fundamental approach to identify sectors of the U.S. and international economies which likely have a significant advantage or disadvantage in the current environment. Simply eliminating unfavorable sectors and diversifying among the rest is usually a better strategy than simply investing in the index(es). The beauty of the approach is being wrong…
With the Bull Market, by some arbitrary measures, now almost 63 months old and the Fed “tightening”, there is seldom a whole day that goes by (usually a Sunday if there is one) that someone doesn’t ask or comment about the age of this bull market. If bull and bear markets ended intraday instead of…
I am not sure anyone saw such a good 2013 coming with the headwinds we faced at the beginning of the year when we endured the largest tax hike, a sequestration, a D.C. argument about the fiscal cliff and risked default on our debt service, a possible war in the Middle East along with the…
This week, the markets’ reputation for anticipation will be put to the test. Will the Federal Reserve begin scaling back its easy-money stimulus? The market seems to think so. Investors have been paring back bonds susceptible to rising interest rates, and the 10-year Treasury yield has already jumped this summer from 1.6% to nearly 3%,…