August 15th, 2025
The focus of the markets this week was on inflation. On Tuesday we received the inflation report for July and it showed the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose a modest 0.2%, firmly in line with expectations and down from previous…
August 8th, 2025
Markets spent this week digesting the surprisingly poor July jobs report released last Friday and ultimately decided it wasn’t really all that bad. It turned into a “bad news is good news” situation as the weak jobs reports significantly raised…
August 1st, 2025
I don’t think anyone’s head actually exploded, but there was a lot of information for markets to digest this week. Coming into the week, US corporate earnings for the 2nd quarter have been better than expected. “For Q2 2025 (with…
July 25th, 2025
The biggest market mover this week was the Trump administration’s announcement that a trade agreement had been reached with Japan regarding tariffs. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/trumps-trade-agreement-japan/story?id=123991644 International stocks (red) spiked higher on the news, followed by US stocks (green) and bonds (blue)….
July 18th, 2025
US stock indices finished the week at, or near, all-time highs, boosted by positive 2nd quarter earnings reports and good economic data. Initial jobless (unemployment) claims for the week ending July 12 decreased from the prior week, and June retail…
July 11th, 2025
In the past few weeks, the S&P 500 (blue) surpassed its previous all-time high set in February and is now up approximately 7% year to date. However, US stocks remain far behind international indices (red) so far this year. US…
June 20th, 2025
Major US stock indices are hanging in there in spite of an increasing number of risks for the markets to weigh. In addition to tariffs and an escalating war between Israel and Iran, US retail sales declined 0.9% in May,…
June 13th, 2025
Stock and bond indices crept higher this week on positive developments in trade talks with China and another round of good inflation data, this time for May. Both consumer and producer inflation readings were better than expected last month as…
May 30th, 2025
Stocks remained relatively flat this week as tariff uncertainty kept a lid on the market’s response to some good economic news. Consumer confidence in May was much stronger than expected on optimism for trade deals, while the Fed’s favorite inflation…
May 23rd, 2025
Major US stock and bond indices were lower this week over US budget deficit concerns earlier in the week, and renewed tariff worries on Friday. We’ve written before about the need for the federal government to change course from expanding…
