Since 1926, the US stock market has rewarded investors with an average annual return of about 10%. But it’s important to remember that returns in any given year may be sky-high, extremely poor, or somewhere in between. Annual returns came within two percentage points of the market’s long-term average of 10% in just six of the past 94 years. Yearly returns have ranged as high as up 54% and as low as down 43%. Since 1926, annual returns have … [Read more...]

As we head into September, I wish all a wonderful Labor Day weekend. In terms of what to expect from September markets, we continue to believe volatility will remain high. As we have allocated for this all throughout the year, no major changes are expected for the accounts we manage. Dividend and gain reinvestment will continue. Inflation is likely to remain and our equity positions have long since been in place to address that. Recession is a … [Read more...]

Dimensional Perspectives: Despite the first two quarters of 2022 bringing the worst US bond market returns since 1980,1 July delivered a positive beginning for the third quarter. For the month of July, the US bond market returned 2.44%, while the global bond market returned 2.55% Available in digital and printer-friendly versions. … [Read more...]

LPL Research “Midyear Outlook 2022: Navigating Turbulence” features LPL Research’s economic and market forecasts for the second half of 2022. It’s available in digital and printer-friendly versions. … [Read more...]

Portfolios, like trees, need nurturing. Dividends are the drips of moisture your investment portfolio needs to sustain and grow. This is especially important in times of severe drought and market volatility. We are constantly seeking out and evaluating dividend paying stocks for the portfolios we manage. At present, there are many good options and we welcome them. Not all dividends are created equal and none are guaranteed, although it is rare … [Read more...]

Fourth of July, summer, and corn are the topic at hand. I don’t grill but I certainly enjoy corn from time to time and haven’t thought much about it until this holiday approached and boy is it in the news! Aside from the grocery store ads and ever-rising prices on food items including those made from corn (tortilla chips, bourbon, Coca-Cola), I found myself going back to an old manual on commodity futures. I absolutely love watching commodity … [Read more...]

One of the areas of volatility that isn’t always the first mentioned and reviewed in headline news is the state of our currency. The dollar is quite strong at present and, in an article in Barron’s, Randall Forsyth summed it up well with “The strong dollar- is helping the Fed’s effort to rein in inflation, doing some of the work of expected interest-rate hikes. But as first-quarter earnings reports from U.S. multinationals demonstrate, the … [Read more...]

Numbers & Such By the middle of each week, the top corners of my desks (yes, multiple) are already full of pieces of newspapers, journals and magazines that I’ve clipped or torn out. This week’s contained a variety of numbers and stats that caught my eye. They included: LPL – was founded in 1989 by the merger of Linsco and Private Ledger, currently serves over 18,000 financial professionals and 800 institutions with a ranking of #466 on … [Read more...]

As the market downturn at beginning of year continued through February, we began treating it like all other corrections. First, it's important to remember that as abnormal as this may feel, it is actually very common and an important component of how our markets work. We had gone two years without such and now is time. Each correction has its own characteristics and this one is quite the character. Should we blame inflation, rising interest … [Read more...]