Market Commentary: Q1 2022
Stock Markets Not surprisingly, stock markets were volatile this quarter. Faced with a myriad of issues ranging from renewed inflation, historically high equity valuations, winding down the Fed’s “Quantitative Easing”, capped by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The largest tech companies held up reasonably well, with Facebook as the only notable exception. Returns from stocks traded […]
Things to be Thankful For: Stock Market Returns, Not Bank Interest
Over the last 90 years, the stock market has been great to investors. No one knows what the market will do tomorrow, but the longer your horizon, the more the odds are in your favor – and you don’t have to wait very long for the numbers to look pretty good. With bank interest close […]
2020 active vs. passive
Each year the financial services company, Morningstar, issues a report of how actively managed funds performed relative to passive funds. Historically, actively managed funds have not performed as well as funds designed to simply replicate a market or published index. However, one argument active fund managers make is that they are “nimbler” during times of […]
How big are the largest American companies?
Somewhere between colossal and titanic. Apple, the largest publicly traded company in the world, has a market capitalization of $2.4 trillion. If it were its own country it would be slightly less valuable than all the publicly-traded stocks in Germany and slightly more valuable than those in South Korea. Microsoft is worth $2.2 trillion, a […]
The fed giveth, and the fed taketh away
Around the globe, COVID-19 killed millions of people, caused nearly 100 million to lose their job, and decreased economic output by several trillion dollars. When times get this bad, we investors are prepared to see losses in our portfolios. But in 2020 we saw the opposite. The S&P 500 was up 18%, almost double its […]
Is inflation haunting your financial dreams? Part 2: what we can do about it
In our last piece, we covered the recent uptick in inflation, and what to make of it in historical context. For investors, it’s important to take a step back and look at the big picture before acting on breaking news. But what if inflation does get out of hand, and stays that way for a […]
The january effect was strong this year
In Syracuse, we see lake effect snow every January. But there’s another sizable “effect” in January if you know where to look. This one’s in the stock market. The “January Effect” is the outperformance of small-cap stocks versus large-cap stocks in the first month of the year. Going back to 1926, small companies have rallied […]
Great results, but greater expectations
Last week we saw some of the largest tech companies in the world report their earnings from the first quarter of 2021 and the numbers were impressive. Headlines on CNBC read: “Apple reports blowout quarter, booking more than $100 billion in revenue for the first time” “Tesla posts record net income of $438 million, revenue […]
Why value stocks do better with rising interest rates & inflation
Year to date returns for Value stocks have exceeded that from Growth stocks across all market caps, both domestically and abroad. There are several reasons for this. US Vaccination rates have been greater than expected, which has helped traditional companies (value) at the expense of technology companies (growth). Company specific earnings have likely made a […]
How to save additional tax advantaged money in the Lockheed Martin 401(k) plan
A common question we receive from clients: “How can I save more money in a tax advantaged way?” Fortunately, if you are an employee of Lockheed Martin you have a unique opportunity. As us nerds call it, the “Mega Backdoor Roth IRA” is a strategy available in 401(k) plans that allow for after-tax 401(k) contributions […]
