Asset Allocation Reports
Asset Allocation Weekly (July 27, 2018)
by Asset Allocation Committee Last week, in a wide-ranging interview on CNBC,[1] President Trump ended a 25-year détente with the Federal Reserve, openly criticizing the current path of monetary policy. The president followed up the interview with numerous social media tweets, further criticizing policy tightening. Although it’s been a long time since a president weighed in… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (July 20, 2018)
by Asset Allocation Committee Although earnings are rising, equity markets have been range-bound since February. This chart shows the S&P 500; after peaking around 2870, prices have been in a range roughly from 2600 to 2800. Although monetary policy tightening is partly to blame, the Fed was lifting rates during the period when the market was… Read More »
Asset Allocation Quarterly (Third Quarter 2018)
We expect that Fed policy will continue tightening through year-end, with as many as two additional increases in the fed funds rate in tandem with a measured reduction in the size of the Fed’s balance sheet, but the prospect for a recession is not included in our cyclical forecast. Our expectations are for continued GDP… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (July 13, 2018)
by Asset Allocation Committee Earnings season is upon us. We normally don’t report on earnings season since we discuss it every day and update the P/E chart weekly, but we are seeing significant growth in earnings which warrants some reflection. The primary reason for the jump in earnings has been the decline in corporate tax rates.… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (July 6, 2018)
by Asset Allocation Committee Over the past quarter, emerging market equities have weakened; the primary culprit was a strengthening dollar, although concerns about softer non-U.S. growth likely played a role as well. The dollar’s strength appears to be caused by one of two factors. The first possibility is interest rate differentials, which are partly due to… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (June 29, 2018)
by Asset Allocation Committee With the recent narrowing of the yield curve, we have been receiving a number of questions about the impact of inversion. Defined, yield curve inversion is when short-duration interest rates rise above long-duration interest rates. The yield curve is arguably the single best indicator of recession. Therefore, with various calculations of the… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (June 22, 2018)
by Asset Allocation Committee Cycle studies are common in analyzing markets. Such studies can be quite useful in some markets that are affected by seasonal factors, such as commodities. We all know it gets cold in the winter and rains in the spring, and measuring the timing of when market participants discount these events can offer… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (June 15, 2018)
by Asset Allocation Committee The last topic in our series on secular trends is the dollar. It is arguable as to whether or not exchange rates are actually an asset class. In our asset allocation, we don’t treat it as one. On the other hand, the behavior of the dollar affects most of the other asset… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (June 8, 2018)
by Asset Allocation Committee This week, we examine commodities in our fourth installment on secular trends. Commodity prices challenge the notion of “secular.” This chart shows a trend model for real (inflation-adjusted) commodity prices, represented by the Commodity Research Bureau (CRB) commodity index, deflated by CPI. We prefer this commodity index for its long history (over… Read More »