By Steven Smith | Waypoints
Well, that was fun. It wasn’t quite the worst ever year for stocks. Thank goodness for that. But bonds had one of (if not) their worst years ever. Consequently, the role that bonds usually play in a portfolio – buffering losses in the occasional bad years for stocks – didn’t happen – and even balanced […]
Continue readingBy Steven Smith | Waypoints
Talk about a yo-yo. We reached bear market (top-to-bottom drawdown of 20% or greater) status twice this year. The S & P 500 (total return) index was down 22% on June 13, 2022. Then recovered to be down only 9% on August 16. But ended the third quarter down 24% for the year. Since I […]
Continue readingBy Steven Smith | Uncategorized , Waypoints
We finally turned the corner on Covid (hopefully) and now find our European allies facing the worst military crisis since World War II — and possibly on the precipice of a nuclear confrontation with the out-of-control Russian leader. After being down by over 10% mid-quarter, the S & P 500 (total return) Index ended the […]
Continue readingBy Steven Smith | Waypoints
For the second consecutive year the US stock market posted an extraordinary gain. This, in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic. The S & P 500 (Total Return) index was up 28.71% for the year, including a 11.2% increase in the fourth quarter. On top of the utterly surprising 18.4% increase in 2020. Other asset […]
Continue readingBy Steven Smith | Waypoints
While the S&P 500 (Total Return) Index eked out a 0.58% gain for the quarter; that was on the heels of September’s worst one-month (-4.8%) performance since March 2020. The US market is still up 15% for the year. The International Developed Markets (MSCI World Ex-USA) index was down 0.66%. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index […]
Continue readingBy Steven Smith | Waypoints
The S & P 500 (total return) index closed the quarter at a record high; up 8.55% for the quarter and 15.25% for the first six months, setting all kinds of winning streaks in the process. The MSCI Developed Markets Index rose 5.65%, with Europe beginning to get more people vaccinated and its economy opening […]
Continue readingBy Steven Smith | Uncategorized , Waypoints
When writing my client note at this time last year, we were in the vortex of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Cases were exploding around the world. Hospitals were overwhelmed – or nearly so. And deaths were mounting. Social distancing had been imposed. Businesses were shuttered. There were massive layoffs, particularly in the […]
Continue readingBy Steven Smith | Waypoints
If you would have told me in April when I was writing my 1st quarter client note, reporting 19.6% loss, that the S & P 500 would be up by 18.40% for the year; I would have asked what you were smoking. At that moment, we were at the beginning of the pandemic and its […]
Continue readingBy Steven Smith | Financial News , Waypoints
Welcome to whiplash land. The S&P 500 (Total Return) Index gained 8.93% in the quarter and 5.57% year-to-date. On August 18, the index reached a record high for the first time since the COVID-19 bear market began on February 19. In just 126 trading days, the fastest bear market recovery on record, the market erased […]
Continue readingBy Steven Smith | Waypoints
The US stock market just had its best quarter in more than 20 years. (Yes, you heard that right.) Of course, that was on the heels of one of the scariest quarters in history, fueled by the Coronavirus pandemic reaching US shores in February. At its worst, on March 23, the S&P 500 was down […]
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