At the end of March the S&P 500 was down just under 5% for the year, and the Nasdaq just under 10%. With bonds and foreign stocks mostly down around 6% for the year, diversifying isn't helping. ...read the rest of this article»

Just when it felt like we were exiting one global economic problem, we're confronted with another. Within just a few days, the Russia—Ukraine war has already decimated Russian stocks and now seems to be spreading into other markets, notably Germany, the most strongly linked economically to Russia, likely foreshadowing economic problems to come. ...read the rest of this article»

In January, the roughly 50% crash in higher flying mania stocks that started earlier in 2021 finally spread to the rest of the stock market — the market with earnings. ...read the rest of this article»

If ever there was a year for American exceptionalism, it was 2021. Our vaccines, if not our deployment, were at the top of the global heap (with some help from Germany). Our stock market as measured by the S&P 500 delivered a remarkable 28%+ return for the year, while the main foreign developed markets index was up around 8%. ...read the rest of this article»

On November 26, we decreased our official stock allocation from 67% to 62% in our Aggressive Portfolio and 45% to 42% in our Conservative Portfolio. ...read the rest of this article»

The brief weakness in stocks in September didn't last. Any fears of inflation, stagflation, global supply shortages, and the like melted away as the S&P 500, with dividends, returned 7%, leading to a 5.13% three-month return and a whopping 24% year-to-date ...read the rest of this article»

High inflation with rising energy prices was unsettling enough, but add interest rates on a move back up and it all seemed to be too much for investors to handle. In September almost all fund categories were down, except energy, commodities, and Japan. ...read the rest of this article»

The S&P 500 beat 95% of fund categories last month, once again leaving portfolios in the dust as mega cap growth and tech stocks continued to dominate, much like they did in bubbly 1999. With no real standouts other than perhaps utilities, we barely beat bonds last month. ...read the rest of this article»

In July, the S&P 500 was in the top 5% of fund categories as market cap-weighted investing in US companies continued to dominate global investing after a brief pause in leadership. The few hot areas that did slightly better last month were yield oriented, as rates drifted lower again in the face of rising inflation and investors snapped up any yields over 2%. ...read the rest of this article»

Our focus on yesterday's losers and some shorts on tech dragged at our returns last month, though some hot areas, like energy and Brazil, kept us in the game with the drag of value stocks. ...read the rest of this article»