2018 ended with tremendous fear in financial markets. The domestic stock market delivered its worst month-of-December performance since the Great Depression (1931): S&P 500 down 9.03% on a total return basis. Virtually every asset class, except cash, ended the year in the red. Normally, with a flight-to-quality from risk assets you have strong performance in…
Makes Historically, the month of December has delivered strong and consistently positive returns. The terms, “Santa Clause rally” and “December Effect,” are common names for this anomalous calendar effect. However, at the time of this writing the S&P 500 index is down approximately 15% month-to- date. This puts the US stock market on pace for…
The US stock market has fallen into correction territory, defined as a 10% or greater decline from recent highs. The correction began this month, suddenly. Thus, it has been a quick and sharp move down, the biggest monthly decline since 2009. Our clients’ portfolios have suffered declines this month but have fared better on a…