The Arrival of COVID-19 We hope that you, your family, and loved ones are holding up and doing well in these unprecedented times. There is no need to explain in detail what happened to the markets during the first quarter; we are all too familiar with the declines. That said, it was the worst quarter…
STRAIGHT A’S & SUSTAINABILITY When you bring straight A’s home from school you don’t have much explaining to do. That was 2019 for financial markets. Most major indices were up more than 20% and bonds rallied in concert with stocks. The decade exited with a bang as the S&P 500 closed with a plus 13%…
WINDSHIELDS, BUMPS IN THE ROAD & THE RIGHT TO WATER We were happy to announce the acquisition of Falcons Rock last month and are thrilled to add Greg Wait and Liz Kiefer to the Riverwater team. Riverwater and Falcons Rock share similar philosophies around responsible investing and we believe the combined entities are both stronger…
Record Highs and a Record Win Equity markets notched another fine quarter to close out the first half of the year with gains across the board. The first six months of the year marks the strongest stock market since 1997. There are many reasons markets are hitting all-time highs: employment is strong, the economy just…
Nice Market Lyft! From a performance standpoint, the first quarter of 2019 was essentially the inverse of the previous quarter; in Q4 2018 it was hard to find a winner whereas this quarter it was hard to find a loser. The market experienced the best first quarter in over 20 years, a sharp 180 from…
The Santa Claus Rout The market’s year end was both interesting and historically quite rare. Going back to 1950, December has been historically the best performing month, with an average monthly return of 1.53% compared to a 0.50% return for the other 11. The Santa Claus Rally failed to materialize in 2018 with broad markets…
It Just Keeps Going and Going. The best way to describe the end of the third quarter is to steal the Energizer Bunny’s tagline, “it just keeps going and going…”[1] The end of September marked the longest running bull market since World War II and the longest most investors have seen in their lifetimes. Equity…
Tariffs and World Cup Football The second quarter equity markets were dominated by headlines surrounding the Trump administration’s proposed tariffs. The tariff talk subsequently turned into action with new tariffs enacted by the US, China, Mexico, Canada, the European Union, India and Turkey. The net effect on US GDP is, at worst, estimated to be…
The first quarter could very well turn out to be a memorable inflection point in this 10-year bull market. The broad indices ended their nine-quarter streak of positive returns, volatility returned with markets moving up or down with much greater magnitude, and the bull market leaders Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google are not looking…
