First Quarter 2026 Market Snapshot
Download (PDF, 481KB) First Quarter 2026: A Crude Awakening While the year opened with a market fixated on artificial intelligence (“AI”) and anticipated rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, the focus quickly shifted to the Iran war and spiking energy costs. Reuters reported that the conflict erased an estimated $7 trillion in global equity value […]
Fourth Quarter 2025 Market Snapshot
Download (PDF, 481KB) Fourth Quarter 2025: Three’s a Crowd (Pleaser) US equities demonstrated remarkable resilience, securing a rare third consecutive year of double-digit gains in 2025. Despite the highest effective tariff rates since 1935 and significant geopolitical uncertainty, the S&P 500 rose 18%. Strong performance was supported by robust corporate earnings growth, Federal Reserve rate […]
Third Quarter 2025 Market Snapshot
Download (PDF, 481KB) Third Quarter 2025: AI Keeps the Rally Alive as Fed Opens the Door to Cuts Equities posted strong gains in the third quarter, even as investors wrestled with familiar headwinds: a softening job market, persistently high valuations, and political uncertainty. In a now common refrain for investors, artificial intelligence propelled the major […]
Second Quarter 2025 Market Snapshot
Download (PDF, 481KB) Second Quarter 2025: 404 Error – Recession Not Found Despite recession fears and gloomy headlines, markets remained resilient in the second quarter of 2025. The sharp April selloff that nearly pushed the S&P 500 into bear market territory has been recovered and then some. Since President Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on […]
First Quarter 2025 Market Snapshot
Download (PDF, 481KB) First Quarter 2025: When It Rains, It Rains on Everyone The first quarter of 2025 marked a reversal for U.S. equities, as optimism gave way to uncertainty. A combination of shifting trade policies, a weakening dollar, and a cooling technology sector weighed on markets, sending the S&P 500 to its worst quarter […]
Fourth Quarter 2024 Market Snapshot
Download (PDF, 481KB) Fourth Quarter 2024: Saddle Up: The Magnificent Seven Ride Again, Leaving Others in the Dust Amid worrisome global turmoil, more modest rate cuts than anticipated, and a US election reversal, mega-cap tech giants powered the S&P 500 to 57 record closes in 2024, along the way to a 25% gain for the […]
Third Quarter 2024 Market Snapshot
The third quarter’s mixed economic news and the Fed’s first rate cut in four years brought, paradoxically, both the return of market volatility and new stock market highs.
Second Quarter 2024 Market Snapshot
Second Quarter 2024: Artificial Intelligence or Artificial Highs? The second quarter of 2024 capped a strong first half of the year, with the artificial intelligence (“AI”) frenzy propelling stocks to gains despite a backdrop of tempered expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts. The S&P 500 climbed over 4% in the quarter and 15% in the
First Quarter 2024 Market Snapshot
The first quarter of 2024 saw new highs in global stock markets, despite the backdrop of higher-for-longer interest rates. Initially fueled by expectations of aggressive rate cuts this year, investors saw robust gains in the US stock market, as economic data continued to surprise on the upside. The S&P 500 rose just over 10%, marking its best first-quarter performance since 2019. Global stocks outperformed bonds by the widest quarterly margin since 2020.
Fourth Quarter 2023 Market Snapshot
Pessimistic forecasts and a dour economic outlook set the stage for an unexpected stock bull market boom in 2023. Just over a year ago, Chairman Jerome Powell cautioned that “it is likely that restoring price stability will require holding policy at a restrictive level for some time. History cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy. We will stay the course until the job is done.