Commentary

Insurance → Inflation + Issuance

Insurance is making national headlines in 2023 as major providers retreat from writing new policies in large parts of the country and renewal premium prices skyrocket.

Commentary

Q3 Earnings Reveal Big Dispersion, Bigger Need for Stock Selection

Q3 earnings season had many familiar refrains relative to the year’s first two quarters. One difference was a return to positive earnings growth for the first time since Q3 2022. Still, the market wasn’t unanimously cheering the results.

Commentary

NVIDIA CEO, Tech Visionary Shares AI Insights and Outlook

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is firmly on the scene and set to change the way we live and work. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, an AI pioneer and visionary, is optimistic and energized.

Commentary

Mega-Cap Tech a Safe Haven

Year-to-date, technology has outperformed the broader market largely given the prevalence of low leverage, high profitability and consistent earnings across many names in the mega-cap tech space.

Commentary

Rotation to Duration: Seeking a More Resilient Portfolio

The potential for a Fed pause presents an opportunity for investors to consider adding duration back into their portfolios. In this market regime, we believe duration serves well as hedge and equity diversifier.

Commentary

Charting a Course in Choppier Waters

Despite progress on bringing down inflation from mid-2022 highs, data from online job postings suggests that wage pressures may be reaccelerating. Beneath the surface, growing divergence in wage gains across occupation categories may be adding a layer of complexity to the outlook for labor markets.

Commentary

Targeting Resilient Portfolio Construction With Alternatives

As investors face continued macroeconomic and market uncertainty, evolving the 60/40 portfolio of stocks and bonds to include alternative investments may help build portfolio resiliency.

Commentary

Opportunity Knocks for Municipal Investors

Municipal bonds sold off considerably in September alongside vastly rising interest rates.

Commentary

Intro To AI for Curious Investors

With all eyes on generative AI (genAI) and its transformative potential, individual investors’ interest has been piqued. The market-moving innovation certainly has generated a lot of hype ― and questions. Equity CIO Tony DeSpirito parses three reasons for excitement and three areas for awareness.

Commentary

Drive for Show, Putt for Dough

Global central bank hiking cycles have dominated financial market headlines for the last 18 months, keeping many investors on the sidelines, hiding out in cash as inflation and the resulting rate hikes were serious headwinds to returns.

Commentary

It’s Not How Much Duration You Hold, It’s Where You Hold Your Duration

Rising rates in the second half of the year have brought year-to-date returns for the US Aggregate (“Agg”) benchmark index negative.

Commentary

Taking Stock: Q4 2023 Equity Market Outlook

U.S. stocks typically post their best returns in the final quarter of the year. Our review of S&P 500 performance since the index’s inception in 1957 found an average Q4 uptick of 4%. (Q1 was next best at an average of 2%.)

Commentary

Stealth Stagnation: Why the U.S. Economy Is Not as Robust as You Think

The prevailing narrative about the U.S. economy is that it’s ‘resilient’: despite rapid rate hikes, economic growth has held up and may even be accelerating.

Commentary

As the Economy Slows, Favor Consistency Over Volatility

In many ways, 2023 continues to be the mirror image of 2022, with the most volatile assets being some of the best performers for much of the year.

Commentary

5 Factors Favoring Stock Selection

When markets are in a rising tide, all boats (aka stocks) can benefit. When the waters are choppier, active equity selection aims to identify the sounder vessels. Tony DeSpirito reviews five reasons why he believes the new environment is setting up to favor an active approach.