Doubts about the underlying momentum of the U.S. economy surfaced in the past few weeks. There are soft spots in the economy, but these are not enough to shake the positive fundamentals in place.

Should stock investors sell now? It’s been a good year for stocks—the S&P 500 has returned 5.7% this year despite the drop on Friday. But has it been too good?

Last week reminded us of the power that central banks wield over markets, for better or worse. While US Investment Strategist Kristina Hooper says central bank actions will be met with increasing market volatility, we still don't expect to see a rate hike in September.

After a 51-day streak of days without the S&P 500 experiencing at least a 1% decline, the market hit a wall on Friday and was down 2.5% on a 40% jump in the volatility index (VIX). It was the worst single-day market decline since the aftermath of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union (Brexit) in June.

You can add current income, capital appreciation and tax advantages to your portfolio with this one type of investment.

The S&P 500 dropped 2.5% on Friday while the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.67%, the highest since June. You'll have to excuse us if we're unimpressed.

U.S. equities were relatively quiet last week before falling sharply on Friday, as the S&P 500 Index declined 2.4% for the week. Global sovereign bond yields also spiked on Friday.

A review of the month’s market-moving events across countries and asset classes.

The perception of the market has been that central banks have had the market’s back by implementing easy monetary policies since the financial crisis. But we’ve seen that these kinds of central bank actions have historically ended poorly for the market.

With weakness becoming more and more obvious in several of the hottest office markets, here’s why large office-market REITs are substantially overpriced.

A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you what I brought home from my trip to Toronto, Vancouver and New York City, where I had met with gold fund analysts.

Reports of what could be the biggest U.S. corn crop ever have put pressure on prices in recent weeks.

By equating the delay of consequences with the absence of consequences, investors have now set up the most extreme episode of equity market speculation in U.S. history next to the 1929 and 2000 market peaks.

The bond market is “sniffing out” an unfriendly change in the direction of interest rates, according to Jeffrey Gundlach. Rates are going up, he said, and investors should position their portfolios defensively for a long-term secular rise in rates.

For years I have argued that ultra-low interest rates act more as an economic sedative than a stimulant. This idea has elicited laughter from the economic establishment.

With volatility low and interest rates poised to rise, why hold gold? Russ discusses the important role it plays in a portfolio as a hedge.

August proved to be a challenging month for high-quality fixed income]. Treasury yields rose across the maturity spectrum, with the benchmark 10-year yield ending the month at 1.58%, toward the high end of its recent range.

Dividend stocks have been thriving in the low interest rate environment. Dividend-paying stocks, which we define as stocks with higher dividend yields than the broad equity market, have garnered support as investors increasingly use stock dividends as a substitute for fixed income in the low interest rate environment.

A year ago at this time, it was hard for investors to find available inventory for the most popular silver products – as well as some gold coins.

It’s safe to say global bonds are in an unprecedented regime with one-third of global sovereign debt in negative-yield territory and price-insensitive buyers (central banks) sucking up $180 billion in bonds every month. The supply-demand dynamics completely overwhelmed other fundamental aspects of bond investment and, with the BoE joining the easing party, there seems to be no end in sight at this point.

Though long in the tooth, the US economic expansion -- now in its eighth year -- is not encountering the forces that presage the ending of a business cycle and the beginning of a bear market. Inflation is not problematic. The yield curve is not inverted. Market stress indicators are not spiking.

In the Wild West, traveling salesmen sold Magic Elixirs that cured anything that ailed you. These days, the elixir is Quantitative Easing (QE) – it supposedly saved the world from Armageddon, lifted stock prices, drove down bond yields, and, according to at least one analyst, created the fracking boom.

We expect the European Central Bank (ECB) to leave policy unchanged at the 8 September Governing Council meeting.

So here’s a question: “Is there clear evidence, across history, showing that large, activist changes in monetary policy instruments are reliably correlated to positive outcomes, of a meaningful size, in the real economy?” The essential truth is this. Most of the variation in output, employment growth, and inflation across history can be reasonably predicted using lagged values of non-monetary variables alone. Adding information from monetary variables like the Federal Funds rate, the monetary base, and even Treasury yields, provides very little additional information. Moreover, only the “systematic” component of monetary policy - the part that can be explained by lagged non-monetary variables, has any meaningful correlation at all with subsequent economic outcomes. The remaining “activist” component does very little except to cause distortions, particularly in the financial markets. Those distortions ultimately cause economic damage when they collapse, but over a much longer horizon than the Fed seems to consider.

“Total political crap.” That’s how Apple CEO Tim Cook described the European Commission’s ruling that the iPhone maker must pay 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion), plus interest, in back taxes to Ireland, its longtime European host. Meanwhile, the island-nation is being accused of giving Apple an “illegal” sweetheart deal in exchange for jobs.

It is no secret that US blue-chip dividend paying stocks are trading at extremely high valuations relative to historical norms. Interest rates remain at all-time lows, and investors hungry for yield have turned to blue-chip dividend growth stocks in order to satisfy their appetites.

Anticipation of U.S. money market reform in October has pressured short-term funding rates higher. What are the implications for banks and investors?

The corporate high-yield market has gone full circle over the past 15 months. Starting in early June 2015, the market began to struggle with the negative implications of a downtrend in the price of oil. That struggle turned into a rout as fears of defaults sent yields rising steadily until mid-February 2016.

Earlier this summer I met with Greg Konieczny, Templeton Emerging Markets Group’s chief executive officer Romania, and we had some great discussions about issues affecting Eastern European emerging markets and the potential we see in select countries and sectors.

We hope you all enjoyed the summer; we certainly did - with a bit of help from Rio. The frustration level amongst investors is rising, as returns on most asset classes continue to disappoint and, in the first Absolute Return Letter of the autumn, we tune in on thinking outside the box. Other than allocating your capital differently, is there anything else you can do to raise overall return levels? The short answer is yes, and that is what this month's letter is about.

Libor has been on the rise in recent weeks and for many borrowers, the increase is almost equivalent to a Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike.

Europe’s fastest growing asset class is negative-yielding debt. This is tough on anyone relying on bond investments to supply steady income. But there’s still plenty of positivity outside the most expensive bonds.

It’s been nearly a decade since the global financial crisis prompted an onslaught of regulations intended to abolish excessive risk-taking and make the financial system safer. Yet the implementation of reforms – and their disruptive effect on financial business models – will peak only over the next few years.

If you have any doubt that we’ve wandered into a new and unexplored economic universe, consider this number: $12.6 trillion.

Equity markets have been trendless and little changed over the past month. Stocks drifted lower last week, with the S&P 500 Index falling 0.7%. The main economic event was Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech at Jackson Hole on Friday, where she indicated rate hikes were looking more likely.

Roger Early is a 40-year veteran of the bond market and executive director and head of fixed income investments at Delaware Management. He is executive vice president and co-chief investment officer of Delaware’s total-return fixed income strategy. I spoke with him last week about the dynamics of the fixed-income market.

Now, the pessimists can't stop talking about profits. Both S&P 500 reported earnings and the government's economy-wide measure of corporate earnings are down 4.9% from a year ago.

Investing only for income is fraught with peril, and there are five reasons why investors shouldn’t select investments based on asset yield. Investing for value is the smarter approach, but the hard part is having the patience and discipline to wait for better values. For a healthy portfolio, investors should take a total-return mindset.

Thanks to strong technicals, the municipal market is having a great year. If the economy and interest rates end the year near today’s levels, we expect the positive trends to continue.

Hedged global bonds captured 96% of US bonds’ positive returns over the last 25 years. And, they preserved more capital during down periods, with a down capture of just 65%. Worried about negative rates abroad? Hedging into dollars boosts low and negative yields into competitively positive ones.

In the tale, a long train must be pulled over a high mountain. Larger engines, asked to pull the train, for various reasons refused. A request is sent to a small engine, who agrees to try. The engine succeeds in pulling the train over the mountain while repeating its motto: "I think I can."

If there were two words to describe the situation the United States is in right now in terms of the economy and the markets, I would choose stable and resilient . . . Whatever the election outcome, I think it will prove to be something the markets will able to digest and ultimately move forward from.

The dog days of summer are here. The garden is ripe with the tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers we have dutifully tended. The summer season is truly a time of gastronomical delight, tempting us to try to extend the period of harvest. Should we leave the fruits longer on the vine? Should we plant more seeds? No.

As a “Tex-Can”—born in Canada, lived in Texas the past 26 years—I’m so blessed to call Texas my home. I can’t wait to tell you all the fascinating things I’ve learned that makes the state a truly remarkable place.

Finding attractively valued dividend growth stocks is getting harder and harder to do. The overall market has been on a relentless advance for many years now, and high quality dividend paying growth stocks have been leaders.

Overseas investors remain a key support of domestic bond prices and have helped to drive the 10-year Treasury yield to a recent level of 1.55%.

Even after this year’s rally, credit remains one of the more appealing sources of income in financial markets.

Following the United Kingdom’s vote on June 23rd to leave the European Union, the S&P 500 fell approximately 5% over the next two trading days as investors worried about what the vote meant for the markets and economy.

There is a new debate emerging among policymakers in advanced economies. Two Federal Reserve Bank chief executives have taken the position that the natural rate of interest in the United States is much lower than previously assumed.