U.S. equity investors can be thankful that last week was an abbreviated trading week as the stock markets were simply ugly across the board. The U.S. stock market closed out a negative week as economic worries are growing. The S&P 500 Index, a measure of broad market performance, declined 4.3% last week. It was the…

The trading week prior to the long Labor Day weekend was uneventful, as is often the case in the last days of the traditional summer vacation season. In fixed income markets, yields were little changed. The focus has turned squarely to the next Federal Reserve open markets committee meeting, scheduled for September 17-18, where the…

It’s hard to write an exciting recap of the previous week in the financial markets when almost virtually nothing significant happened until Friday morning. Financial market participants were squarely focused on the speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell at the Jackson Hole Symposium in Wyoming, where central bankers from all over the world congregate…

Once again, “dip buyers” in U.S. equity markets were vindicated last week. The S&P 500 Index, a measure of broad market performance, had its best week of the year, continuing an impressive market comeback from the sharp sell-off experienced at the beginning of August. Two key U.S. inflation reports, the Producer Price Index (PPI) and…

Global markets had a wild ride last week as volatility spiked. What we at Elevage Partners observed is a validation of one of our long-held beliefs for investing successfully: You want to choose when to buy or when to sell an investment; you do not want to be forced to look for liquidity at the…

In the span of just over two weeks the narrative in the global financial markets changed abruptly. It went from ebullience in equity markets to the fear of an imminent recession. The “great rotation” that started in mid-July promised to finally include “value” and small cap equities in the bull market. Instead it turned into…

The political implications of the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump dominated U.S. financial markets last week. The market priced in an Election Day victory for the Republican Party. Several market sectors, including financial services, industrials and energy, were projected to be the beneficiaries of a second Trump administration’s “America first” trade…

We are watching stock markets closely today as they react to the tragic events in Pennsylvania over the weekend. At this early juncture, it’s unclear how markets will react over the longer term and it’s still a long way to Election Day in November. We will, of course, continue to stay on top of how…

When we look at the investment environment at the midpoint of 2024, we see two main trends. First, markets have now priced in the impact of fewer than expected Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. Second, equity valuations are expensive overall but could be justified by the underlying solid strength of the U.S. economy. Looking in…