Monthly Thoughts
-
Stocks Set New Highs as Investors Look Past Headlines & Focus on Fundamentals
Monthly Market Summary Stocks Set New Highs Despite Interest Rates Rising Throughout the Month Equity markets traded higher in August, with strength extending across most broad stock market indexes. The S&P 500, Dow Jones, Russell 2000, and equal-weight S&P 500 all set new all-time highs during the month, and the Nasdaq 100 approached its all-time…
-
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…
-
Stocks Hold Steady Despite a Busy Month of Geopolitical and AI Headlines
Monthly Market Summary Markets Turn Back to the Middle East as Tensions Resurface The ceasefire from earlier this spring didn’t hold in July. Renewed conflict between the U.S. and Iran resurfaced the same headlines and concerns from earlier in the year, as uncertainty around the Strait of Hormuz once again raised the risk of reduced…
-
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…
-
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…
-
2Q 2026 Recap & 3Q 2026 Outlook
Jeffrey L. Corliss, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU® CASL®Managing Director, Westport A THOUGHT BEFORE WE GET INTO OUR RECAP & OUTLOOK: Climbing the Wall of Worry The old investment phrase, “the market climbs a wall of worry,” has rarely felt more appropriate than it does today. Every day seems to bring a new reason for investors to…
-
AI and Geopolitics Continue to Drive Markets
Monthly Market Summary Stocks Set New Highs as Geopolitical Tensions Ease May was a strong month for equities, with most major indexes setting fresh all-time highs. The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 set new highs each week, with the Dow Jones and Russell 2000 also setting new highs throughout the month. Even the equal-weight…
-
Stocks Set New Highs as Geopolitical Tensions Ease
Monthly Market Summary Markets Rebound as Geopolitical Tensions Ease Back-to-back ceasefires, first between the U.S. and Iran on April 7 and then between Israel and Lebanon on April 16, changed the market’s outlook. The agreements removed the worst-case scenario, and the reversal was immediate across markets. The S&P 500 erased all its March losses and…
-
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…
