A few clients have asked me about the recent volatility in stocks.  It may be helpful to keep these two things in mind: When President Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, a lot of investors were concerned about the direction of the country.  Over the next year, the S&P500 gained 26%. When President Biden was …Read More

Bond prices are influenced by factors that can be different from stocks. In the past two years, bonds have been hurt by sharply higher interest rates caused by the Federal Reserve as it moved to constrain high inflation. (When interest rates go up, bond prices go down.) More recently, analysts expected the Fed to begin …Read More

Stocks gained in the first three months of 2024, continuing a good run that began in November 2023. For the first quarter of 2024: US large company stocks, often represented by the S&P 500 index, gained a lot, led by big gains in a few very large technology companies: Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Amazon, Meta (Facebook), …Read More

All categories of stocks were up substantially in 2023 (chart). US large company stocks ended the year up 26.3%, near a record high. As usual, the path to good year-end returns was not straight. In 2023 it was two steps forward, one step (or two) back. As recently as late October, US mid- and small-company …Read More

Like stocks, all categories of US and international bonds were up in 2023 (chart). Bonds are heavily influenced by inflation and Federal Reserve interest rate actions. Inflation is declining, and the Fed says it may lower rates in 2024. Both are very good news for the bond market. Mortgage rates are declining as well, which …Read More