An eventful first quarter wrapped up last week. In today’s blog, we make seven market observations from first quarter performance and share our thoughts on what these performance trends could mean for our outlook.

• Growth Dom

Financial markets and the Federal Reserve are reading from two different playbooks. Who is right? The markets are pricing in several rate cuts by the end of this year, while the Federal Reserve communicated more rate hikes with an expectation of hold

Key Takeaways:

• March was a volatile month, but seasonality patterns prevailed, as stocks stuck to the script of back half outperformance.

• April seasonality trends suggest the melt up could continue. Since 1950, the S&

After one of the weakest February’s on record, the municipal market is on track for its strongest March performance since 2008, as it benefits from a flight to safety amid turmoil in the banking industry. The Bloomberg Municipal Index is up nea

A lot has changed in the past few weeks, both in terms of expectations for interest rates and lost confidence in the health of the banking system as a result of the sharp rise in interest rates that has led to some things “breaking,” as w

The Federal Reserve (Fed) has a history of raising short-term interest rates until something “breaks.” Considering the Fed has raised rates from a near-zero level to 4.75% (upper bound) over the course of only one year, it was almost a ne

While concerns about the debt ceiling have been increasing, markets, businesses, and the economy are likely to see only minimal impact until we are days, or maybe a few weeks, from the “x date,” the date on which the federal government wi

The sharp rally in U.S. equity markets has created many skeptics, given the size and scope of the advance. As of February 2, the S&P 500 is up 8.9% year to date, marking its best start to a year since 1987. The big question now is if ‘this

The first month of 2023 is now behind us and it felt very different than 2022. In 2022, the S&P 500 and the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (“Agg”) both fell and there was much talk of the demise of the “60/40” portfoli

The script has been flipped in 2023. Last year’s underperformers have turned into outperformers this year, driving the S&P 500 Index up over 5% this month. The pace and composition of the rally have left many investors skeptical over its su