Insights

The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament is underway, with 68 teams now down to 34 by the time we post this. We have never been big on the bracketology that some like to play (we like watching F1 racing), but it’s an obsession for others.

We have all heard the term “threading the needle,” which has multiple meanings. The literal meaning is to guide a piece of thread through the eye of a sewing needle.

Our Chief Investment Officer, Stephen Colavito, was interviewed by Luis Garcia of the Wall Street Journal for a December 21, 2023 article about public market equivalent (PME) methods for comparing private equity fund returns to public benchmarks.

We started writing this last week, but because data was changing rapidly, we paused and decided to post our update mid-week.

A late rally helped the major indexes end flat to modestly higher last week. The small-cap Russell 2000 Index outperformed the S&P 500 Index for the third time in the past four weeks, helping narrow its significant underperformance for the year-to-date period. Growth stocks built modestly on their lead over value shares, however.

Yes, we are going into the “way back machine” to 1981 when Journey released the second single from the group’s seventh studio album Escape In our humble opinion, this is one of the most iconic songs from our high school days, and the way we know this is our kids know the lyrics to this song in 2023. 

The major indexes ended higher last week, with the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite rounding out their best monthly gains (8.9% and 10.7%, respectively) since July 2020 on Thursday. Falling Treasury yields seemed to continue to boost sentiment, and a broad bond market index recorded its best monthly gain since 1985.

Let’s Make a Deal was a television game show that originated in the US in 1963 (even before our time) and has since been produced in many countries worldwide.

Last week, stocks closed higher over a quiet holiday-shortened trading week—markets were shuttered Thursday during Thanksgiving and closed early Friday

Thanksgiving is our annual national holiday celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year.

The major indexes finished mixed last week, but not before the S&P 500 Index came close to matching its longest winning streak in nearly two decades—on Wednesday, the S&P 500 notched its eighth straight gain, while the Nasdaq Composite Index marked its ninth.

“Goldilocks and the Three Bears” was a 19th-century fairy tale with three different versions. The original version of the tale tells of an impudent older woman who enters the forest home of three bachelor bears while they are away.

The S&P 500 Index recorded its most substantial weekly gain in nearly a year, as signs of a slowing economy and a policy statement from the Federal Reserve that was generally perceived as dovish led to a sharp decrease in long-term bond yields.

This could be our most significant update of the year for various reasons. This week, we will try to lay the groundwork for what we could face in 2024.

The major U.S. stock benchmarks finished lower for a second straight week, as market sentiment was dented by mixed corporate earnings reports and concerns about higher interest rates—highlighted by the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S.

On Tuesday will be All Hallows’ Eve, observed in many countries, a day dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.

Geopolitical concerns, tough talk from Federal Reserve officials, and a rise in long-term bond yields to new 16-year highs appeared to weigh on sentiment and drive the S&P 500 Index to its most significant weekly decline in a month.

Wag The Dog is a 1997 political satire film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. The film centers on a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer who fabricate a war in Albania to distract voters from a presidential sex scandal.

Last week, the major indexes ended mixed as investors weighed inflation data against dovish signals from Federal Reserve officials.