After the pullback in July and a small pullback in September, the S&P resumed its rally in early October as the third quarter earnings season was getting underway. There was quite a bit of skepticism about the earnings season and whether companies would be able to meet the expectations of investors as the trade war […] Read more

Last week I wrote an article about the retail sector and how it was going to be in the spotlight for a week or so. There was the retail sales report for October that was due out on November 15 and there were a number of big retailers set to release earnings. With the U.S. consumer carrying […] Read more

When the trade war started at the beginning of 2018, most investors expected it to take a toll on certain sectors more so than others. Many expected it to hurt the industrial sector and the tech sector more than others. Despite the concerns, the tech sector has continued to climb and has doubled the returns […] Read more

The American consumer has done a great job of propping up the economy. Corporate spending has been on the decline for the last few quarters, but spending at the consumer level has kept the U.S. economy growing. Over the next week or so the spotlight will be on the retail sector as retail sales for […] Read more

This week is one of the busiest weeks for economic news for the entire year. The first look at third quarter GDP came out on Wednesday and there was an FOMC rate meeting and decision on that same day. The ISM Manufacturing Index and the October Employment report are both due out tomorrow. So far […] Read more

One of the words that you hear quite often in the investment world is “alpha”. Investopedia gives us this definition for alpha and what it means in investment terminology: “Alpha” (the Greek letter α) is a term used in investing to describe a strategy’s ability to beat the market, or it’s “edge.” As an investor […] Read more

As we quickly approach the holiday season many of you with small businesses get anxious about how to handle the last quarter of the year. The holidays are great, but can be fraught with pitfalls if you don’t plan accordingly. This is especially true if your business has seasonal tendencies that coincide with the holiday […] Read more

For those of you who are not familiar, the Wikipedia says this “A repurchase agreement, also known as a repo, is a form of short-term borrowing, mainly in government securities. The dealer sells the underlying security to investors and buys them back shortly afterward, usually the following day, at a slightly higher price.” If you […] Read more

Stocks were extremely volatile in August as the market got whipsawed by various developments throughout the month. The S&P gained or lost over 1% in 11 of the 21 trading days during the month and in the end, the index dropped 1.8% on the month. Now we enter September with investors nervous and the ninth […] Read more

In these polarizing times we live in, controversy never seems to be too far away. From day-to-day politics to the world of sport, it appears we have an attraction to things that cause a bit of a stir. One might think that it would be an obvious plus to have your ad next to something […] Read more