With just one week remaining in the month of June, the 2Q was a decidedly bumpier and more uncertain experience than enjoyed in the first 3 months of 2019. Make no mistake however, the most recent 18 months have been anything but smooth sailing (but aside from 2017, the market rarely is) as trade disputes and the path of monetary policy are recurring sources of tremor. Still, as we look to the quarter’s final trading days this week, the S&P500 is very near to recapturing all-time highs. This follows a strong week fueled by formal communication by the Fed that its monetary policy is shifting and a cut to rates will occur when it meets in July. Also assisting the equity market is welcome news that Trump and China’s Xi will talk concerning the current trade differences at a G-20 meeting in Japan this week. The news flow is again positive from the perspective of equity markets. Yet as friendly as those developments are, this should also serve as reminder that risks remain. Research firm Strategas recently put it this way: investors and markets are presently at the whim of three people – Fed Chairman Powell (unelected), President Trump (unpredictable), and President Xi (largely unaccountable). This should caution investors from getting too complacent.
Monthly Archives: June 2019
Soft Economic Data an Investor’s Friend? – Week Ended 6/14/19
Global equity markets are enjoying a swift recovery following their “distracting” adjustment last month. The S&P500 is up +5% over the first 10 trading days in June (thru 6/14), even as the trade dispute between the US and China is yet to show tangible signs of renewed repair. For the most part, improvement is being attributed to a more accommodating tone developing from Federal Reserve officials as they communicate their thoughts on the path of monetary policy and appear tipping their hat to a yield curve that is now inverted across some key maturities. The inversion in shorter-dated maturities is long thought a message that monetary policy is too tight for the economic conditions and outlook. It is in that regard that weaker economic data is now the market’s counter-intuitive friend. Just as strong economic data suggests to the Fed that tighter monetary policy is appropriate to keep the threat of inflation at bay, weaker data gives the Fed support to shift to an easier and more accommodating monetary policy even though the economic cycle is long. Bad news is good.
Undistracted – Market Commentary for June
If you travel through the village of Mantua in northeast Ohio, don’t drive with a dog in your lap. Determined to stop distracted driving, the police are aggressively issuing tickets to curb behaviors such as driving with an animal sitting in your lap or texting. All around the world, new laws are being written to address distracted driving. It is also important to not let various happenings distract us from accomplishing important plans of life. That includes plans about your finances – financial planning and investing for the future. We all know from experience that life events can get in the way of advancing forward with best laid plans for the future. Nevertheless, keeping plans and goals in our foresight provides better chance to achieving them.