How does a Knowledge Leader handle a global pandemic? By adapting.
If you’re following our Nasdaq Dorsey Wright commentaries here, you’ll notice that we have been discussing the factors driving the wide performance dispersion between some top-performing broad market funds, namely, the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) and the Invesco S&P 500 Top 50 ETF (XLG)...
For most US governors, June typically brings political fireworks when state legislatures hammer out final budgets for the next fiscal year.
While technicals for the asset class remain a headwind in the near-term, bank loans may provide an attractive opportunity and relative value.
Even after the partial rebound from COVID-related losses, we think high-quality companies in certain developed and emerging markets remain compelling investments. High-quality companies outside the U.S. look especially attractive to us.
As everyone in the financial services industry knows, the US equity market is open from 9:30 am – 4:00 pm EST. However, the US market now also has pre- and post-market trading from 7:00 am until open and from close until 8:00 pm.
Deficits are rising across the developed world as governments aggressively loosen their purse strings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But what are the ramifications of all this debt?
A brief monthly update on what's happening in the municipal bond market.
As emerging markets cope with the COVID-19 epidemic, Franklin Templeton’s Emerging Markets Equity team considers three new realities they see in the emerging markets today. This second post in a three-part series examines how emerging markets have diversified their economies.
In many ways large cap, and especially large cap growth, has dominated the story in 2020.
Over the course of history, during world wars, pandemics, financial crises, and deep recessions, municipal bond defaults have been an extremely rare occurrence. There have been less than 700 rated municipal bond defaults in the over 100 years of public finance existence. As a point of comparison, we saw over 117 corporate defaults in 2019 alone.
Join the Nasdaq Dorsey Wright (NDW) analyst team to discuss market developments through a technical lens and highlight areas to monitor in the coming weeks. Topics this week include reviewing recent market movement through near-term overbought/oversold levels, equity-based participation indicators, and support levels on major indices.
While a cap-weighted index derives its performance from the movement of the underlying holdings multiplied by their respective allocations as determined by market cap, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index, which simply means that stocks with the highest share price receive the greatest weighting in the index.
The stock market has been on an absolute tear since the end of March, evidenced by the S&P 500 Index (SPX) rallying almost 43% through Friday’s close (3/23 – 6/5). While the rebound has been a relief for many, conversations concerning the overbought status of the equity market are beginning to circulate, and perhaps justifiably so.
The month of May closed with a challenging brew of the lingering pandemic, tentative reopening, trade tensions, and political unrest. Markets, however, continued their remarkable recovery. The month ended with the S&P 500 37% higher than its March 23 low.
Join the Nasdaq Dorsey Wright (NDW) analyst team to discuss market developments through a technical lens and highlight areas to monitor in the coming weeks. Topics this week include the increasingly overbought posture of domestic equity indexes and the laggard rally in size & style classifications.
The CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX), which is often referred to as the ‘fear index’ is a measure of uncertainty or volatility in the US equity market.
Since broad domestic equity indices posted a bottom on March 23rd, they have not looked back. In fact, the S&P 500 Index (SPX), Nasdaq Composite Index (NASD), and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) have each rebounded with price returns in excess of 30% (data beginning 3/23/20 through 5/27/20).
Join the Nasdaq Dorsey Wright (NDW) analyst team to discuss market developments through a technical lens and highlight areas to monitor in the coming weeks. Topics include sector rotation, model updates, and refined areas of leadership within the domestic equity space.
As the COVID-19 crisis and the challenge of the economic recovery process continue, it’s critical to understand how to care about our clients without caring too much. Don’t risk your own well-being and become unable to help those who need you.
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average have each finished in negative territory in 15 of the past 39 summers (or about 38.5% of the time).
Chinese stocks have been resilient this year because of relatively modest earnings downgrades amid an early recovery from the virus-induced shock.
Join the Nasdaq Dorsey Wright (NDW) analyst team to discuss market developments through a technical lens and highlight areas to monitor in the coming weeks. Topics include fresh buy signals for the major domestic equity indexes and further outperformance from growth oriented areas.
Thus far in 2020 and throughout the COVID-19-induced sell-off and partial recovery, there has been a pronounced size and style bias within the US equity market in favor of growth over value and large-cap over small-cap.
To get a handle on the state of U.S. small caps after the pandemic-induced losses in early 2020, we ask: How did the U.S. small-cap group perform relative to other market-cap groups during the several years through 2019? How did they perform during the downturn...
A brief monthly update on what's happening in the municipal bond market....
In a down market, one of the types of investments that should perform well is long-short funds. But not all those funds have given investors the downside protection they need. I am talking today with the manager of a long-short fund that has delivered this year.
Although the major indices are well off of the lows they reached in March, there remains a high level of uncertainty about what the future holds for the market and the economy.
April was a strong month for the market with the S&P500 returning more than 12%. This came on the heels of an extremely volatile month that was March 2020 where the S&P500 corrected 12.50% when all was said and done. However, there was a ton of volatility to get there.
Leverage is probably one of the most controversial subjects in investing. Used properly (and given a bit of good fortune), the benefits of leverage can be amazing. Leverage is the reason why home ownership is often viewed as one of the best ways of building wealth.
We are cautious today. This is a unique period of Knightian uncertainty. In a world of unbounded unknowns, protecting capital is paramount. However, the environment is in a state of flux and new information is developing at a rapid pace.
May officially marks the beginning of the “seasonally weak” half of the year, which lasts through October. We are all familiar with the saying "sell in May and go away," which conjectures that we would do just as well to sell all of our holdings as we would be invested in the market during the months of May through October.
Low Price to Something investing, or “value” investing as it has come to be known since Fama/French introduced the “value” factor has been a disaster for investors over the past 10 plus years.
Coronavirus-related stay-at-home orders and falling consumer demand have been extremely challenging for small businesses. If you’re a small-business owner, make sure you’re taking advantage of the help that’s available.
As the COVID-19 pandemic evolved during the first quarter, the municipal bond market experienced one of its most volatile periods in years. Here, the Franklin Municipal Bond Department shares how they plan to navigate the market, which they think is likely to show signs of distress and elevated volatility for some time.
The GMO Asset Allocation team has released its latest 7-Year Asset Class Real Return Forecasts through the first quarter of 2020.
Following the market meltdown, investors seeking to bolster defensive positions could end up finding them in some unusual places.
The health of our planet depends on responsible investing. On Earth Day and every day, it has our full support.
Unlike most macro investors who are event-driven, RBA has always strictly followed fundamentals. Our models and indicators have been time-tested in multiple cycles over the past 30 years, and a deliberate and disciplined approach has so far served us well in the current unprecedented environment.
Major economies are contracting, but extraordinary policy responses could limit severe recessions to this year.
Closed-end funds are currently trading at a discount as equity markets have dropped. Here’s where to spot opportunities.
The municipal fixed income market, like most other asset classes, is experiencing unprecedented volatility. Large mutual fund outflows are adding to the volatility as investors seek to add to cash reserves by selling what may be deemed easiest to sell.
On Thursday, March 12, Rick Raczkowski, co-lead portfolio manager of Core Plus Fixed Income participated in a conference call with clients to discuss recent events and market activity. He discussed that while there is a lot of fear and uncertainty in the market right now he and co-lead portfolio manager Peter Palfrey, are maintaining their discipline of managing through the cycle as they have for the past 20 years.
On Friday, March 13, Loomis Sayles’ Global Fixed Income team held a conference call to discuss the current market environment, policy responses and potential opportunities. Here, portfolio managers Lynda Schweitzer and Scott Service summarized a few key points.
Municipal closed-end funds (“CEFs”) currently offer high levels of tax advantaged income and can often be purchased at a discount to their current net asset value.
On Thursday, March 12, Loomis Sayles’ Full Discretion team held a conference call to discuss current conditions, upcoming challenges and potential portfolio positioning and solutions. Here, portfolio managers Matt Eagan and Elaine Stokes summarized a few key points.
The Loomis Sayles Alpha Strategies team shares some insights as markets grapple with three issues: the impact of COVID-19, an oil fight and a crisis of confidence in Western governments.
Long-term perspective is key as coronavirus and falling oil prices roil markets. Members of the Matthews Asia investment team share their insights and outlook amid volatile markets.
Our Emerging Markets Equity team examines the impact of the spread of coronavirus across emerging market economies during the month of February.