The interest rate increase that accelerated when President Trump won in November ended in December. Rate-sensitive investments across the board have performed well in recent weeks, pushing our Conservative portfolio up more than our Aggressive portfolio in January. ...read the rest of this article»

The Powerfund Portfolios started 2016 well and ended 2016 well, but the underperformance during the interest rate increase was a post-election drag on our bond and foreign funds which lowered both portfolios' annual return numbers.  ...read the rest of this article»

November was Donald Trump's month in the markets. Nobody saw him winning much less U.S. stocks going up in the wake, but weirdly many of the stocks that did well after the surprise Trump victory started doing so before the election. Maybe this oddity — which could be a mere coincidence — will show up in the fake news that permeates the conspiracy circles online. Talk about a bull market… ...read the rest of this article»

October was a strange one — and not just for the elections. Pretty much everything that was recovering this year slipped in last month. ...read the rest of this article»

September was one of the dullest months in quite some time in the markets. The only broader fund categories up more than 3% where China and Japan funds. Most fund categories were within plus or minus 1%. Even in sector funds no category gained or lost over 5%. ...read the rest of this article»

August was not much of a month for bonds or stocks and was surprisingly tame given swings in global markets over the last year or so. Slightly rising interest rates pushed bond prices down, and with not much in stock market upside to overcome the drag, we had fractional losses in both portfolios.  ...read the rest of this article»

July was another month that the Conservative Powerfund Portfolio outpaced our Aggressive Portfolio. This is largely because rates keep declining globally and the Conservative portfolio is heavier on bonds and rate-sensitive stocks.  ...read the rest of this article»

With a sharp rebound following a fast drop, a casual market observer reviewing one-month performance numbers might not think much happened in June. But recent days have been anything but ordinary. The cause was Brexit, the British referendum to leave the EU not going as market players though it would. ...read the rest of this article»

The U.S. stock market is back to beating global markets. Riskier U.S. assets have been strongest lately and interest rates remain low. In this environment we've just got too much short and too much abroad to keep pace with the U.S. market. ...read the rest of this article»

The dramatic rebound seems to be running out of gas—or rather, oil. Recently, corporate earnings have been weak while stock prices have been strong. This can't continue for long. Either earnings will have to head back up or prices will have to head down—otherwise, we'll have late-1990s-style high P/E ratios, only without the expectation for high earnings growth. That's not going to happen. ...read the rest of this article»