Chart of the Month

  • 2 minutes

    Stocks vs. Bonds: More Choices for Investors as Bond Yields Rise

    Jeffrey L. Corliss, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU® CASL®Managing Director For most of the past two decades, investors seeking higher returns had to rely more heavily on stocks. After the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates extremely low to support the economy, which meant Treasury bonds offered relatively little income. While stocks carried more…

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    2 minutes

    Historical Context: 2026 Is Outperforming the Average Midterm Year

    Jeffrey L. Corliss, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU® CASL®Managing Director Midterm election years have historically been more volatile than other years, and they’ve historically delivered weaker returns. This year has followed a very different path. The S&P 500 has gained nearly +12% year-to-date. For comparison, the average midterm year is historically flat at the same point, while…

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    2 minutes

    Wall Street Usually Cuts Its Estimates – This Year, It’s Raising Them

    Jeffrey L. Corliss, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU® CASL®Managing Director Each year tends to follow a similar script on Wall Street. Analysts start the year optimistic about how much profit companies will earn, then spend the following quarters trimming those forecasts as actual results come in. Figure 1, which tracks the S&P 500 earnings estimates for each…

  • 3 minutes

    Market Forecasts Change, Retirement Plans Shouldn’t

    Jeffrey L. Corliss, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU® CASL®Managing Director The bond market started this year expecting the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates twice by year end. Today, it expects a rate hike instead. The chart below captures the reversal. The lines graph the market’s rate forecast for the same stretch of time, from now through…

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    2 minutes

    What Real-Time Data Says About the Economy

    Jeffrey L. Corliss, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU® CASL®Managing Director Most economic reports are released with a delay, which means investors are often looking at what happened weeks or even months ago after economists have had time to gather the data. The Federal Reserve’s Weekly Economic Index helps fill that gap by providing a more up-to-date snapshot…

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    2 minutes

    Market Volatility: The Best Days and Worst Days Travel Together

    The stock market’s best and worst days tend to arrive together, and the early months of 2026 offered a timely reminder. The S&P 500 fell nearly -10% from its late-January high through the end of March as the U.S.-Iran conflict sent oil prices surging more than +60%. Headlines about the Strait of Hormuz closure, rising…

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    2 minutes

    Software Stocks, AI Disruption, and the Importance of Diversification

    Jeffrey L. Corliss, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU® CASL®Managing Director The software industry has declined nearly -30% from its peak last October, one of the largest non-recessionary drawdowns in over 30 years. Figure 1 puts the decline in historical context alongside the other major software selloffs. The two largest drawdowns before the current one, the dot-com bust…

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    2 minutes

    Why Two Identical Salaries Can Lead to Very Different Retirement Lifestyles

    Jeffrey L. Corliss, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU® CASL®Managing Director Many people spend their careers focused on reaching the next salary milestone or securing a promotion, but financial progress shouldn’t be measured by your paycheck alone. The decisions you make in your peak earning years are just as important as the size of your paycheck. One of…