One Cut, Two Cut: The Fed’s Delicate Balancing Act The Federal Reserve delivered a widely expected 25-basis-point rate cut (bp, 1 bp = 0.01%), but Fed Chief Jay Powell tempered market enthusiasm by signaling that a December cut is far from certain. It was the second...

All That Glitters is Gold Among various assets, one unexpected outperformer has been gold. Since the start of the year, the shiny metal has increased by over 50%, easily surpassing the major stock market indexes. Globally, gold is priced in dollars. A rising dollar...

A Three-Year Anniversary On October 12, 2022, the S&P 500 Index hit a cyclical low. In hindsight, that marked the end of the 2022 bear market. Fast forward three years, and the current bull market has now been running for three years. Let’s compare the current run...

Government Shutdowns: Why Investors Rarely Care Historically, US government shutdowns have had minimal impact on the stock market. Let’s review the graphic below. Since 1976, government shutdowns of varying lengths have had little effect on stocks, as measured by the...

Reductions in Interest Rates and Market Response—Historical Review A couple of weeks ago, the Federal Reserve cut its key rate, the fed funds rate, by a quarter-percentage point to 4.00-4.25%. It’s the first rate cut since last December. So, is this one and done, or...

The Fed Delivers a Long-Awaited Rate Cut To virtually no one’s surprise, the Federal Reserve slashed the target on its key interest rate—the fed funds rate—at the conclusion of its meeting on Wednesday. The only question regarding the decision was whether the Fed...