Brian Elmer

Market Growth Continues

Today’s note will focus on answering the question in last week’s note, namely why there has been a large turnaround in the financial markets. The reason for the large turnaround in the markets is due to the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States.  Mr. Trump is seen as a ...
Read More
BG-Icon2.png

What a Week in the Markets!

The week of November 7-11, 2016 was a volatile week in the markets.  Prior to last week the S&P 500 Stock Index had been down for nine straight sessions, making that the longest losing streak since 1980!  Most investors felt that Hillary Clinton would win the US Presidential election.  Howeve...
Read More
BG-Icon2.png

An Earnings Recession

An earnings recession is defined as lower quarter over quarter earnings for two consecutive quarters.  U.S. companies have now been in an earnings recession for the past six quarters.  However, based on third quarter earnings reports, it appears that the earnings recession may be over.  This is a...
Read More
icons_0002_icon-3

Real Estate Finally Gets its Own Home

The S&P Dow Jones Indices are adding a new sector to the S&P 500 Index.  This new sector is the Real Estate sector.  Prior to this latest change there were ten different economic sectors in the S&P 500 Index:  Energy, Industrials, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Healthcare, ...
Read More
Brian Elmer

Here Comes the Volatility (Again)

Along with the return of many investment professionals from their summer vacations, market volatility has also returned.  Before Friday, 9/9/16 the broad stock market had not dropped by more than 1% for 52 consecutive trading sessions.  However, on 9/9/16 the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fe...
Read More
BG-Icon2.png

The Labor Markets on Labor Day

On Friday, September 2, 2016 the August employment report was released.  Nonfarm payrolls rose by 151,000, which was below the 180,000 new jobs predicted by economists.  The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.9%.  Generally, an employment rate below 5% indicates full employment for the econom...
Read More
BG-Icon2.png

Market Update

The three major U.S. stock indices, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 Index, and the Nasdaq Index are selling at or near all-time highs.  With the markets at these lofty levels where do they go from here? I think that the U.S. stock markets will continue to rise as the year progress...
Read More
BG-Icon2.png

Record Levels Again

In my note last week I wrote that the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indices had both reached record highs with the Dow Jones Industrial Average close behind.  As I write this note today all three of the indices are selling at record highs. So where do the markets go from here? I think that […]...
Read More

Indices at Record Highs

On August 5, 2016 the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq index both reached record highs.  And the Dow Jones Industrial Average is only 52 points away from its all-time high.  So what is an investor to do now that the markets have risen so much?  Some profit taking at these levels would be prudent....
Read More