In a recent article released by The Economist titled “Feeling Perky: The economic impact of high oil prices,” the cause and potential effects of high oil prices are generally explored. Many of us are currently experiencing the impact of high oil prices on our wallets and the dread of seeing the illumination of the fuel [...]
The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke spoke in front of Congress today. While always an anticipated event for the media and markets, he didn’t really have much to say that we don’t already know. He encouraged Congress to pass a debt plan that had “fiscal sustainability” and would give confidence to both businesses and consumers. [...]
The Twilight Zone We have been silent on the Euro zone mess for quite some time. We get plenty of calls on this topic, and, yet, we haven’t been able to bring ourselves to say much in writing. Why is that? The simple fact is that the trouble in Europe is in many ways unknowable. [...]
Yes, things look pretty glum when you take a look around the U.S. today (not to mention, the world). Unemployment is hovering around 9.2%, the housing market is still near the depths of its slump, the politicians can’t or won’t play nicely in the sandbox together, as of 10/10/11 the S&P 500 was down 18% [...]
If any traders’ proverb has been further from the truth this summer it is “Sell in May and go away.” It used to be that summer was a time where the stock, bond, and commodity markets didn’t do much because everyone was on vacation (either literally or figuratively). As we all know that sure hasn’t [...]
The downgrade of the US by Standard & Poors after the market’s close on Friday had been widely expected. There was a flurry of finger-pointing and hastily-called meetings over the weekend, but the decrease in the stock indices we are seeing today reflects a healthy return to the fundamentals of investing more than they reflect [...]
The discussion continues to swirl concerning the debt ceiling, and we have received calls from many of our clients. For those clients who may have skimmed the most recent quarterly report, we are reprinting the comments from the Fixed Income portion that covers this matter more fully. We continue to believe the issue is first [...]
We have added Janus Capital Group, Inc. (JNS) to the Smaller Companies portfolio. Janus manages approximately $173 billion through various mutual funds and separate accounts for retail and institutional accounts. In recent years, Janus has diversified away from a focus on the growth style of investing by purchasing Perkins Investment Management (a value based manager) [...]
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