US Exceptionalism Discussions of U.S. exceptionalism in the stock market stem from the consistent outperformance of major U.S. indexes compared to global markets. For example, over the past decade, the Global Dow is up about 103%, while the S&P 500 Index has risen...
Debbie Downer On Friday, the University of Michigan reported that the Consumer Sentiment Index for the U.S. fell to the second-lowest reading on record, with the mid-May level falling to 50.8 from April’s 52.2. “Tariffs were spontaneously mentioned by nearly...
Team Wait and See Virtually no one was surprised when the Federal Reserve kept its key lending rate, the fed funds rate, at 4.25 – 4.50% last week. Fed officials had widely telegraphed that there would be no change in the fed funds rate. Hence, the decision had no...
Front-Running Tariffs Distort GDP The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that first quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the broadest measure of economic activity, fell at an annualized pace of 0.3%. Yet, a closer look reveals that the economy...
Tariff Threat in Play Our weekly Insights offers updates on pertinent financial and economic topics that educate and inform. They focus on what is important to investors. These may include inflation, the economy, interest rates, the Federal Reserve, and corporate...
The Consumer Bolsters GDP The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported last week that Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the largest measure of goods and services for the economy, expanded at a 2.3% annualized pace in the fourth quarter. That’s down from 3.1% in...
