Investment Management

By Chris Perras, CIO Equity markets rallied last week amid expectations that the Fed will start cutting rates in 2h2019. The S&P 500 rose almost 4.5%, led by cyclical groups including materials, technology and industrials. The ECB delayed its own rate hike agenda, and European markets rallied strongly with Germany and France posting gains of…

By Chris Perras, CIO The S&P 500 fell 2.6% last week on growing trade tensions.  This extended its decline from its late April early May high to 6.6%. The year-to-date gain has slipped below 10%. As we have said since early January, we expected a late second quarter pullback in the market of up to…

By Chris Perras, CIO U.S. markets were closed Monday for the Memorial Day holiday. Last week, the S&P 500 dropped 1.2% to lower its year-to-date gain to 12.7%. (albeit this is a rigged number given the markets 20% down move in late 4th quarter 2018 setting the bar for the first half 2019 very low).…

By Chris Perras, CIO Equity markets had a choppy week caused by renewed trade tensions and mixed U.S. economic data. The S&P 500 fell 0.6% by the time it all finished, ending the week around 2860 with “boring” consumer staples, telecom and utilities being the only sectors to gain. Almost every strong piece of data…

The 2nd Quarter Pullback Comes Knocking By Chris Perras, CIO U.S. SP500 equity futures are down about 1.5% this morning and almost 2% on the NASDAQ.  This is being driven by increasing concerns over the escalating U.S./China trade war.  As we previewed way back at the beginning of January, the “deadzone” of May through late…

By Chris Perras, CIO The calls for a market “melt up” started around SP500 2900-2925 around Easter. We believe these market calls are comical given a move to 3000 would amount to about 1.5% higher than the all-time highs. Moreover, many of these same individuals called for “retests of the lows”, economic recessions looming, and…

1st Quarter EPS Recap: Disney, It’s a Magical Place… 3M, It’s not so MMM MMM good By Chris Perras, CIO Global equity markets were mixed this week, but USA markets found support from better earnings, a Friday payday passive flow, and stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data. The S&P 500 rose 1.2%, to a marginal record high. …

By Chris Perras, CIO The S&P 500 was flat last week, but is up 16% year-to-date on ebbing recession fears, as the U.S. economy is showing signs of rebounding after slowing at the turn of the year. The idea that the U.S. and China are converging on a trade deal by the summer has helped sentiment…

Rotation Nation – 2q19 Pause and/or Pullback By Chris Perras, CIO The S&P 500 rose 0.5% last week to extend its year-to-date gain to 16%, ending around 2905, a little beyond our 2q19 projected range of 2880-2900. We are back to flat with last September. Within Financials, JP Morgan topped estimates on Friday and was…

“Say Anything”– Capitalism is Dead per the .0001% ers!!! By Chris Perras, CIO Equity markets posted gains last week with the SP500 closing within 1.5% of all -time highs. Looking back to the beginning of 2019, when we published our 1st half-outlook, investors were looking at a trade war with China, a government shutdown, falling…