In the News: The Bloomberg Barclays US Aggregate Bond Index was down 2.2% in the 10-month period through October 31, 2018. However, a recent report from the Equity Compass Group at Stifel reminds us that sometimes what goes down must go up. Stifel Senior Portfolio Manager Timothy McCann makes two key points in the report: (1) “Over the last 27... Read more »

In the News: In an interview in last Friday’s New York Times, Chief Fixed Income strategist at the Schwab Center for Financial Research, Kathy Jones, relayed her concerns that by holding T-Bills or cash equivalents investors may be too defensive. Interestingly she comments on a Morningstar Direct report stating that for the last six months... Read more »

In the news: Last week it was not a surprise that the Federal Reserve decided to hike interest rates for a third time this year, for a total of eight hikes since December 2015. Short term rates seem to be getting closer to the Fed’s goal of a neutral level. The Fed is projecting another 25bps hike in December of this year along with three more... Read more »

In the News: According to a recent Nuveen survey, households have a more positive outlook on the economy and personal finances than they did three years ago. Despite this apparent confidence, the survey and wealthmanagement.com, both point out that while 80% of survey respondents say they pay particular attention to investment risk, in reality we... Read more »

What’s in the News? In an August 2nd interview, David Kelly, Chief Global Strategist of JP Morgan Asset Management, explained how an inverted yield curve could create income for consumers. Like many strategists David believes that the fed will pull off 4 more rate hikes by June 2019. After these hikes, he expects the yield curve to be flat. Even... Read more »

Did you know... According to a Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited study, Millennials invest less than 30% of their wealth in the stock market. A study done by Bankrate.com stated that 30% of millennials believe that the best long-term investment is cash. The term Millennials refer to 18-37 year olds and arguably the toughest demographic segment to... Read more »

What’s in the news: Last Tuesday the Federal Reserve Board released a list of the top 33 Nations that own US Treasury Securities, which include Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds as well as TIPS. It is not surprising that China and Japan were the two biggest holders of US Treasury debt, about one-third of the total foreign investment. In total,... Read more »

Did You Know... By definition, History is defined as the study of past events. History is studied to help one understand the past, sometimes in an effort to predict the future or to avoid mistakes. The narrowing gap, or spread, between interest rates on short-term and long-term government bonds has historically signaled the risk of a recession.... Read more »