In the first seven trading days of 2019, the S&P 500 returned 3.6%, its 12th best start on record since 1928 and best since 2003. Also, the S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 surpassed large caps by posting their best gains ever to start a year. Lastly, more than half the segments by sector, size Read more […]
The S&P 500 lost 9.2% in its second worst December on record – only behind December 1931 when the index lost 14.5%. However, the widespread losses across sectors, styles and sizes in the broad U.S. equity market was remarkable with every major segment down in December. Only 9 times in history has every segment of the Read more […]
In November, there was high market volatility in response to at least a few major events including the U.S. midterm elections, Brexit, G20 and Fed Chair Powell’s comments. The risk (measured by 30-day annualized volatility) on Nov. 30, 2018 for the S&P 500 was 20.6%, which is 3.5 times higher than its risk of 5.9% Read more […]
The S&P 500 is down 9.4% month-to-date as of the close on Oct. 29, 2018, and is on pace to record its worst Oct. since 2008 and its sixth worst Oct. based on history since 1928. The other years when the S&P 500 that lost more in Oct. than in Oct. 2018 (so far) happened Read more […]
The big news in August was that the aging Bull market (since March 9, 2009) became the longest-running Bull market in S&P 500 history, as it posted an annualized 16.6% equity return and 19.1% with dividends, as my colleague, Howard Silverblatt pointed out. While the record-breaking Bull market for the S&P 500 is spectacular, mid-caps and Read more […]
In April 2017, S&P Dow Jones Indices launched the S&P GSCI Dynamic Roll Reduced Energy 70/30 Futures/Equity Blend. This index is designed to measure the performance of a multi-asset allocation strategy that consists of a futures-based commodities index and an equity index that is based on various commodity-related GICS® subsectors. The futures portion is represented Read more […]
Small caps are outperforming large caps (S&P 600 (TR) – S&P 500 (TR)) in H1 2018 by the most in eight years, since H1 2010, from growing concerns over rising tariffs and general U.S. foreign trade policy. In the past four months, the smaller companies have outperformed larger companies by 10.1%, contributing to the 5th biggest Read more […]
Small caps just outperformed large caps for three consecutive months for the first time since Sep. 2016. From Feb. through May, the S&P SmallCap 600 (TR) outpaced the S&P 500 (TR) by 9.5%. It is the biggest premium realized in a three month period since the three months ending in May 2002. In fact, outperformance this big has only happened Read more […]
The U.S. dollar hit a 4 month high last week from concern over potentially faster interest rate hikes to control inflation as oil exceeded $70 per barrel and the lowest unemployment since 2000 was reported. If the U.S. dollar continues to strengthen, it may be useful to know how U.S. equities moved historically in times when the Read more […]
The Dow Jones Commodity Index (DJCI) was up 2.9% for April 2018 and up 3.7% YTD, while the S&P GSCI was up 5.0% for the month and 7.3% YTD. Precious metals was the worst-performing sector in the indices and energy was the best. Exhibit 1 depicts the month-to-date and YTD performance of the sector indices Read more […]
