Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by .25% and gave guidance of another 1% increase in 2016 as the year progresses. The market initially took it well, then thought about it and had a brutal fall on Thursday and Friday as the S&P 500 fell 4% in that two day period. It appears…
Read BlogThe big news recently has been the fear in the junk bond market. Below are the CCC credits, which are the lowest rated junk debt. Pretty amazing it has a 17.7% yield. It does reflect similar concerns that occurred in 2011 with the Greek crisis and the European recession potentially dragging the U.S. down as…
Read BlogThere is an article in the Wall Street Journal on Monday titled “The Stock Market Is Missing the Warning From Junk”, and we could not agree more. We have talked about the lower, but still investment grade bonds widening, consistent with past recessions/bear markets. Please click the link below to continue reading: Market in a…
Read BlogThis morning, the ISM Index was released and it was surprisingly weak. We are concerned it is confirming our concern that the economy may be contracting, given how weak the retailers have been. The ISM Index is a survey of the manufacturing sector. As a result, it is a good indicator of the economy. Please…
Read BlogIn this update we want to review how the strategy works, what the investor should expect, and how to best to use it in an overall allocation. The strategy is defensive in nature, focuses on the naturally defensive sectors of the market, protects from systemic risks with market hedges, has a compelling dividend yield, and…
Read BlogThe Federal Reserve minutes that was released on Wednesday of last week, sparked a rally in the market. We think the Fed is very likely to raise rates in December. In a less obvious way, the Fed has implied their target would be around 2% on the Fed Funds rate rather than the prior target…
Read BlogOur Dynamic Core Strategy works off of moving averages, or technical analysis, and has no fundamental input. As a result, if the trend is down, we are defensive, and if the market trend is up, we are invested. It’s easier to look at it like Index investing with some bear market protection. Please click the…
Read BlogAs we expected, the market did come down to the support level of 2020 on the S&P 500 but then on Monday it bounced off of this level. You can see from the chart the resistance is roughly 2060 on the S&P 500. Please click the link below to continue reading: Market in a Minute…
Read BlogWith the top of the technology bubble in 2000, there were a handful of large cap technology companies that drove a large percentage of the final move of the stock market. There were actually about 6 stocks, including EMC, CSCO, NOK, INTC, MSFT, and DELL. To continue reading click the link below: Market in a…
Read BlogThe markets have gone nowhere now for 11 months, as earnings and revenue growth have been weak. So far for the quarter, earnings for the S&P 500 are a little better than the original down -5% estimate, which is currently down -2%, but revenues are down -3% as expected. There has been a flight to…
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