Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA Global equity markets tumbled due to economic growth concerns as the US Treasuries extended their gains from August. The holiday-shortened week started with weaker-than-anticipated manufacturing data out of China, which highlighted just how weak...
Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA The final week of August was all about NVidia’s second-quarter earnings results and the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, the PCE. Expectations for NVidia’s earnings were so high that some decided to throw pre/post-earnings...
Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA US financial markets inked another week of gains as investors cheered what they heard from global central bankers at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium. In fact, the bulk of the gains were made on Friday after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell...
Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA Markets reversed course last week as investors reassessed the economic narrative of a recession. Better-than-expected inflation data, alongside a robust reading of Retail Sales and a pullback on Initial Jobless Claims, tempered fears of a severe...
Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA Wow, what a week for global financial markets.  A rollercoaster ride for investors continued throughout the week as multiple narratives ricocheted off prior expectations.  Crowded trades coupled with weaker-than-expected economic data in the prior...
Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA Last week, markets took a significant step back on weaker-than-expected labor data that challenged the idea of an economic soft landing. Mega Cap technology earnings continued to show massive cap-ex spend on AI; however, enthusiasm about...
Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA Financial markets traded mixed last week.  News on Sunday that President Biden had decided not to pursue reelection and endorse his Vice President Harris induced a reassessment of the political landscape.  However, the overall reaction in the...
Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary

It was a very busy week on Wall Street as investors seemed inclined to rotate out of Mega-cap tech and into this year’s laggards.  A failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last Saturday in Pennsylvania only bolstered his chances for reelection...

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA The holiday-shortened week saw the S&P 500 eclipse 5500 and hit its 31st all-time high of the year.  Volumes were relatively light until Friday, when $5.5 trillion in derivatives expired and rolled in the next contract month.  Several...

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA The S&P 500 inked its twenty-fifth all-time high for the year, with outperformance coming from the mega-cap technology names.  The Vanguard Mega-Cap Growth ETF was up 3.3% for the week. NVidia and AMD started the week with new product...

Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary – 5/24/2024 -Darren Leavitt, CFA Financial markets ended the week with mixed results. All eyes this week were on AI darling NVidia, which posted better-than-expected Q1 results and provided guidance above the consensus estimates. The...

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA US equity markets forged another set of new highs in an extremely busy week on Wall Street.  Global Central Banks took center stage, headlined by the Bank of Japan, the US Federal Reserve, and the Bank of England.  The BOJ, as expected, moved away...

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA Markets pushed back on an early week sell-off to close at record highs for the S&P 500 and NASDAQ.  A building sense that the market is due for a pullback was met with inline consensus inflation data, continued outperformance in the...

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA The S&P 500 and the Dow Industrial Average forged new all-time highs despite investors taking profits early in the holiday-shortened week.  Semiconductor stalwart NVidia’s fourth-quarter earnings results induced a massive rally in the stock...

Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary – 2/16/2024 -Darren Leavitt, CFA Wall Street took a breather last week as hotter-than-expected inflation data forced investors to recalibrate their expectations for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.  Mega-cap issues that have been...

Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary – 2/9/2024 -Darren Leavitt, CFA The S&P 500 hit another record high and topped the 5000 level for the first time as investors focused on better-than-expected Q4 earnings.  The economic calendar was light this week but showed...

Weekly Market Commentary

-Darren Leavitt, CFA It was a turbulent week on Wall Street as investors assessed the Federal Reserve’s decision on monetary policy while economic data and corporate earnings offered mixed results.   Tensions in the Middle East escalated as the US hit Iranian proxy...

Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary – 1/26/2024 -Darren Leavitt, CFA US equities inked another set of weekly gains on the back of mixed 4th quarter earnings results and encouraging economic data.  The S&P 500 and Dow set new all-time highs. Dutch Semiconductor Company...

Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary – 1/19/2024 -Darren Leavitt, CFA The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average hit record highs on Friday despite a reset of monetary policy rate cut expectations.  Mega-cap technology issues outperformed with a jump start from the...

Weekly Market Commentary

Weekly Market Commentary – 1/12/2024 -Darren Leavitt, CFA US Markets gained ground in the second week of 2024, attributed to mega-cap issues in the Information Technology and Communication Services sectors.  The Equal-weight S&P 500 was up 0.2%, while the...