Happy New Year, and new decade! Time flies – just twelve months ago investors entered 2019 questioning whether the bull-market might be dead following a relentless and jarring 4Q’18 decline coupled with anxiety that the Federal Reserve would continue pursuing step-like rate increases despite rising uncertainty related to trade and tariffs. At that time, who would guess that the year would provide the most attractive full-year market performance in over 6 years?!
In this quarter’s update, “Hindsight is 2020” provides a quick recap of the recent year, but more significantly why it is so important to battle temptation to invest based upon short-term worries or negative headlines alone. Continuing, “2020 Vision” [bear with us as we enjoy the easy puns available this calendar year] discusses the key themes we’re focused on this year and how those shape our expectations/forecast for the broad economy and investment markets in the upcoming year. Among the themes are a Fed that appears on-hold; the Money Supply (M2); international economic fundamentals and investing opportunity; bond markets; and a US Presidential election year. Lastly, “Sparks Start Fires” offers quick thoughts on escalating middle-east tensions and how these geopolitical uncertainties may cause market jitters in the short term.
The printer-friendly version of these newsletter articles can be obtained here: Nvest Nsights – Q4 ’19 Newsletter.
Also included in the newsletter (and posted separately here), our personal finance topic this quarter overviews the recently passed The SECURE Act and broad implications for both owners and beneficiaries of retirement accounts.