During her speech last Friday before the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, the Fed Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen indicated the Fed may raise rates at some point this year. She said, “ … if the economy continues to improve as I expect, I think it will be appropriate at some point this year to … Read more
Both S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Indices reached new highs again last week. Investors are much more optimistic after a six-year bull market. However, investors are wary that a market correction could derail their financial plan even though most of them believe their investments will perform well in 2015, according to a recent survey conducted … Read more
Dr. Henry Ma, CFA, PhD, President and CIO of Julex Capital, was a panelist on a Morningstar Webinar on “Positioning Your Portfolio for 2015” on December 16, 2014. Following are highlights of some of the views shared by Henry during the webinar: Our 2015 economic forecast for U.S. growth is a bit more rosy that … Read more
Bill Gross, the “bond king” of Wall Street, quit Pimco last Friday because of “fundamental differences” with the board of the $2 trillion firm he founded 40 years ago. He will join Janus Capital to become the portfolio manager of a newly-launched Unconstrained Bond Fund. Although Gross has been on the new headlines for months … Read more
Should Wall Street Be Concerned About Ukraine? Last week, Ukraine crisis was on headline again. G7 countries have approved a new round of sanctions against Russia. In addition to the current measures such as asset freezing and visa bans against Russian high level officials, the sanctions may target individuals with influence in sectors of the … Read more
Last week, the stock markets bounced back amid the strong retail sales and upbeat earnings report from Citi Group and Yahoo. S&P 500 Index rallied 2.7% and has recovered most of losses in April. U.S. retail sales recorded their largest gain in one and half years in March at 1.1%, generating optimism that growth may … Read more
Recently, a scary chart created by market pundit, Tom DeMark, has stirred Wall Street. He drew a striking parallel between the current market performance and the 1929 crash. The sell-offs in last few weeks tended to confirm his bearish prediction (see Chart One). So far in April, S&P 500 Index tumbled 2.9%, even worse, the … Read more
General Market Conditions – Risk Switcher(TM) Julex has developed a four-factor Risk Switcher (TM) model to provide assessment on the general market conditions. Normally, in a “Risk On” regime (bull market), the economy is expanding, market trend is going up, market volatility is moving lower and market liquidity is plenty. In a “Risk Off” regime … Read more
Top Stories Last Week • US Stocks Moved Higher Last Week US stocks moved higher while bonds declined as Fed signaled interest rate rises in 2015. Last week, S&P index rallied 1.3%, and MSCI EAFE index climbed 0.1%. The MSCI Emerging Market jumped by 1.7%. Gold tumbled 3.5%, and the SPGC commodity index dropped by … Read more
Top Stories Last Week • US Stocks Moved Higher Last Week US stocks moved higher while bonds declined as employers added more jobs than expected. Last week, S&P index rallied 1.1%, and MSCI EAFE index climbed 0.2%. The MSCI Emerging Market was flat. Gold climbed 1.2%, and the SPGC commodity index rose by 0.5%. The … Read more