By JoAnne Feeney Portfolio Manager Many investors benefitted last year from the sharp appreciation in stocks of popular work-from-home companies represented by the FANG stocks (FB, AMZN, NFLX, GOOG), while those looking for income were left behind. This year is off to a very different start as last week’s gyrations made clear, and rightly so....Read More

By Charles Lieberman Chief Investment Officer Monetary policy remains highly accommodative, as unemployment is still high in the aftermath of a sharp, deep recession, while inflation remains below the Fed’s 2% plus objective.  Many people fear that the Fed’s injection of trillions in liquidity will cause inflation to surge.  We do not see rising inflation...Read More

Like Sumo Wrestling, The Bigger You Are the More You Move the Needle I write these Monday Market Updates to provide real news, without the noise, and more importantly, to educate. Each week we will look at different jargon or alphabet soup acronyms, and other subjects in finance that are confusing and overwhelming. Last week...Read More

by David Ruff CFA, Global Portfolio Manager Europe receives relatively little attention in the 2020 manic global equity markets led by the major markets of China and the U.S..  Ranking last of the big three regional powers in year-to-date equity performance is not an uncommon position for Europe.  In dollar terms, the pan-European STOXX 600 Index...Read More

by Kevin Kern Founding Partner Going through life searching for happiness can certainly bring some disappointment.  But going through life searching for meaning and purpose can bring serenity.  This can also be true with investing.  The purpose of your portfolio will determine the level of serenity you are having this year as the S&P 500 is...Read More

by Dr. JoAnne Feeney The market has been behaving like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde over the past month, bouncing between good and bad news. Which personality will arrive this week? The extent of uncertainty applies to this year’s earnings, but also 2021 and 2022. As we’ve noted before, we are in a strange situation where...Read More

by Dr. Charles Lieberman The surge in Covid 19 cases unnerved investors this past week, which is understandable. People did get complacent as various states reopened, particularly those that hadn’t been hit hard when the pandemic first arrived in the U.S. So, infections spiked notably in places that hadn’t previously been subjected to large numbers of...Read More

by John Bruggemann, CFP On Tuesday, June 23, the IRS announced a few important modifications to the original changes made by the CARES Act regarding RMDs (required minimum distributions) taken from an IRA and defined contribution plans in 2020. As you may recall, the CARES Act waived 2020 RMDs as well as first-time 2019 RMDs delayed...Read More

by David Lieberman When we wrote our last C19 memo on June 8, we had expected C19 cases to continue a gradual decline. Instead, states with lower case counts reopened early, people were surprisingly complacent, and cases have actually increased sharply in select states, even as cases continued to fall in what had previously been high...Read More

by Kevin Kelly Portfolio Manager During the first half of 2020, fixed income yields moved substantially, behaving far more volatile than normal and deviating from historical levels of normal volatility (perhaps the understatement of the year!). Consequently, almost every fixed income portfolio has seen the widest swings in principle values since the Global Financial Crisis. All...Read More