August has a reputation as a volatile month, and it sure delivered this year. After nearly two months without a 1% close higher or lower for the S&P 500 Index, market turbulence re-surfaced in August.  Over the past month, we’ve not on

We have lowered our projections for U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield, and operating earnings for the S&P 500 Index in 2019, as we noted in the August 19 Weekly Market Commentary: Tweaking Forecasts, and introduce

When Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell speaks, markets listen. Friday, August 23, the markets had a new opportunity to gauge the Fed’s direction when Powell gave a closely watched speech at the annual gathering of central bankers in Jac

Growth stocks have had an unprecedented run of outperformance compared with value stocks for over a decade now. Strong performance has left valuations at extremes, which we used to support our slight preference for value stocks in late 2018 and into

We are tweaking our 2019 forecasts to reflect increased risk to economic growth and corporate profits from the ongoing trade conflict between the United States and China. We are maintaining our year-end fair value target on the S&P 500 of 3,000 a

We continue to believe there is technical support for the S&P 500 Index as discussed in our August 9 blog, and we’re already seeing some signs of the pessimism that is necessary for forming a bottom. The negative sentiment intensified Augus

Stocks endured significant volatility last week but showed some resilience Wednesday, August 7, when the S&P 500 Index dropped as much as 2% intraday before rallying back late to close slightly positive. Stocks ended the week near flat, putting t

U.S.-China trade tensions have ratcheted up again following President Trump’s decision to level tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of U.S. imports from China. Combine that with China’s decision to let its currency (the yuan) weaken pas

The Treasury yield curve is plunging further into inversion, the point at which long-term yields fall below short-term yields.

As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, Yield Curve Plunges Further Into Inversion, points on the yield curve ar

We’re a week into August, and trade tensions have been the biggest driver of U.S. stocks, as we predicted in our latest Weekly Market Commentary. Markets don’t like uncertainty, and we are getting a heavy dose of it now.

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