Research & News
Asset Allocation Weekly (November 13, 2020)
by Asset Allocation Committee | PDF In our most recent Asset Allocation quarterly rebalance, we addressed the potential for election-related market disruption. In the end, we made only modest defensive adjustments to the portfolios and instead focused our allocations on continued policy support and economic recovery. In this week’s report, we will look at the… Read More »
Weekly Energy Update (November 13, 2020)
by Bill O’Grady, Thomas Wash, and Patrick Fearon-Hernandez, CFA | PDF Here is an updated crude oil price chart. Positive news on a vaccine for COVID-19 led to a strong rally this week, taking prices to the upper end of the current trading range. Commercial crude oil inventories rose 4.3 mb when a 2.0 mb… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – Revolution in Kyrgyzstan (November 9, 2020)
by Thomas Wash | PDF Around 20,000 protesters took to the streets in the Kyrgyzstan capital of Bishkek following parliamentary elections on October 4. Social media posts and news reports of alleged vote-buying and registration fraud sparked outrage when 107 out of 120 parliamentary seats went to parties loyal to President Sooronbay Jeenbekov, a surprising… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (November 6, 2020)
by Asset Allocation Committee | PDF In his book entitled The Counter-Revolution in Monetary Theory, Milton Friedman states that, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in a sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.” This sentiment shaped both… Read More »
Weekly Energy Update (November 5, 2020)
by Bill O’Grady, Thomas Wash, and Patrick Fearon-Hernandez, CFA | PDF Here is an updated crude oil price chart. After dipping below the $37.00/$42.00 range, prices have returned to that band. A key reason is that OPEC+ is considering additional production restrictions. Commercial crude oil inventories fell 8.0 mb when a 2.0 mb build was… Read More »
Weekly Geopolitical Report – Of Pirates and Computer Hackers (November 2, 2020)
by Patrick Fearon-Hernandez, CFA | PDF It’s now been more than a quarter century since the first nefarious behavior was observed on the internet. There have been countless news reports about computer hacks, stolen data, ransom scams, misinformation aimed at manipulating elections, and the like. Many of us have had to change our passwords and… Read More »
Asset Allocation Weekly (October 30, 2020)
by Asset Allocation Committee | PDF Many investment managers think of “foreign equities” as one big, monolithic asset class and leave it at that. When setting a portfolio’s asset allocation strategy, many simply assign a certain percentage to the asset class and implement it by investing in a broad international index fund. Here at Confluence,… Read More »