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.

On A

U.S. stocks have hit another trade-induced summer storm.

The S&P 500 Index fell 3% on Monday, its worst day since December 2018. The index is now about 6% from record highs in U.S. stocks’ worst bout of volatility since May.

August has been one of the worst months for the stock market historically. In fact, it has been the worst month on average for the past 10 years, with the S&P 500 Index down an average of 0.78% for that month [Figure 1]. Last week’s 3.1% sl

U.S. monetary policy has taken another U-turn.

The Federal Reserve (Fed) announced a 25-basis point (0.25%) rate reduction July 31. As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, The Federal Reserve’s First Rate Cut in 10 Years, the rate cu

The Federal Reserve (Fed) is likely to start an easing cycle this week, which has several investment implications. We have written a fair amount about the Fed’s U-turn in policy stance this year, including last week’s Weekly Market Commen