We ran out of superlatives to describe corporate America’s stunning performance during first-quarter earnings season. Despite lofty expectations, results exceeded expectations by one of the biggest margins ever. So what will companies do for an encore? We expect more good news this quarter as more of the economy has opened up, while also acknowledging the second quarter will almost certainly end up being the peak in earnings growth for this cycle. Here, we highlight what to watch.

Numbers Should Be Great Again

After a remarkable performance during first-quarter earnings season, delivering an encore that will please in

Index Performance (as of 4:00 PM EST)

U.S. and International Equities

Most of the U.S. and international markets were fractionally higher this week as traders were concerned about a potential peak in the global recovery, declining bond yields, as well as the rising cases of the Delta COVID-19 variant worldwide. US small cap (Russell 2000), developed international (MSCI EAFE), as well as emerging market (MSCI EM) equities are down over 2% over the past month. International equities have pulled back as the US dollar has rebounded and small caps have suffered as some traders believe the current economic revival ma

The S&P 500 Index closed at a record high on Wednesday, yet investors seem increasingly on edge with the VIX Index, a measure of implied volatility on the S&P 500, spiking nearly 40% week-to-date. We won’t bury the lead here, our answer to the title is simple: this could be the start of a correction, but we aren’t betting on a significant decline in the S&P 500 and here’s why.

First of all, it is important to remember that corrections are a normal part of investing and there are plenty of reasons why stocks could pull back here. Just last week, we published Three Things That Worry Us, and highlighted

We mix it up this week on the LPL Market Signals podcast and bring on LPL Research’s Director of Research Marc Zabicki to discuss what he has learned about investing and working with Advisors in his more than three decade career.

Learning About Marc

Marc takes us on a path of how he landed at LPL and why he is so excited about the next phase of his career. He has always been a Research guy, but working with Advisors is something he always enjoyed and he is glad to be back at it. Although his new role brings with it many challenges, he is excited to work with our nearly 30 person Research team and help our Advisors help