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MARKET INSIGHTS

October 2024

10/4/2024
As inflation continued to slow, there was extensive speculation that the Fed would finally start reducing interest rates.
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September 2024

9/9/2024
The bond market has been watching the Fed to see when and how much they will reduce the Federal Funds rate.
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August 2024

8/5/2024
For July, the Bloomberg 1000 Total Return Index returned 1.41%. The Bloomberg 1000 Growth Index returned -0.11% and the Bloomberg 1000 Value Index returned 5.12%.
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July 2024

7/10/2024
Well, half of the year is in the bag! The Bloomberg 500 Total Return Index returned 15.1% for the first six months of the year.
Continue Reading - Market Insights July 2024


June 2024

6/3/2024
This year, KoCAA has switched our mutual fund benchmarks to Bloomberg’s suite of market indices. Going forward, we will quote the Bloomberg index returns in Market Insights and CIO Corner.
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May 2024

5/3/2024
April was a busy month in the capital markets, the economy, and the political world.
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April 2024

4/2/2024
Every month, John Hoag of our client service team, harangues me until I complete Market Insights. Mercifully, I remembered and told John I would write it today, April 2nd, and hopefully it will not only be fast, but useful and interesting as well. 
Continue Reading - Market Insights April 2024


March 2024

3/1/2024
For the month of February, the stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, returned 5.4%1. The market continued to enjoy strong flows while trying to gauge the next move by the Fed.  
Continue Reading - Market Insights March 2024


February 2024

2/1/2024
For the month of January, the stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, returned 1.7%1. The equity market has been watching the Fed very closely for clues on when the Federal Reserve might want to start cutting the Federal Funds rate.
Continue Reading - Market Insights February 2024


January 2024

1/1/2024
Well, 2023 is over and 2024 has just begun. We want to wish everyone a healthy and prosperous New Year. As we reflect on the markets, my first course of action this morning after logging in to Bloomberg was to calculate the annualized return for the S&P 500 for the period of 12/31/21 to 12/31/23; with dividends reinvested, the index had an annualized return of 1.7%1.
Continue Reading - Market Insights January 2024


December 2023

12/1/2023
The stock market saw very strong gains in November with the S&P 500 returning 9.1%, with dividends reinvested1.
Continue Reading - Market Insights December 2023


November 2023

11/1/2023
This Market Insights is a few days late because I am just getting back into the swing of things after a trip to Rome last week in which I was asked to participate in a conference on Mensuram Bonam.
Continue Reading - Market Insights November 2023


October 2023

10/1/2023
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco expects excess savings to be entirely depleted by the end of the third quarter.
Continue Reading - Market Insights October 2023


September 2023

9/1/2023
Every summer, we have two or three interns in the KOCAA offices to help with a number of tasks. I always tell them that I am not sure they will love the job, but by the end of their internship, they will certainly know what it means to be a securities analyst.
Continue Reading - Market Insights September 2023


August 2023

8/1/2023
The Knights of Columbus annual convention occurs the first Tuesday of August and as this was August 1, the convention was as early as it can possibly be.
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July 2023

7/1/2023
We are at a very interesting crossroads in the U.S. economy. On the one hand we are still awaiting the most predicted recession in our history. 
Continue Reading - Market Insights July 2023


June 2023

6/1/2023
The dance is almost over. Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden seemed to have come to an agreement to increase the debt ceiling and it has passed the House with bipartisan support as the vote tally was 314-117. 
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May 2023

5/1/2023
This month has continued the economic challenges as the most predicted recession in history has not yet arrived, but we believe compelling evidence is building for an impending slowed down.
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April 2023

4/1/2023
Every month as I sit to write this essay, I try to focus on a current theme (I will come to Silicon Valley Bank, I promise!).
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March 2023

3/1/2023
The world and the markets remain quite complicated. Domestically, we are still dealing with the environmental mess from the train derailment in Ohio.
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February 2023

2/1/2023
The capital markets provided a reprieve for wary investors after the stock market slump in 2022. For January, the S&P 500 returned 6.3%1 and that allowed investors to feel at least some relief.
Continue Reading - Market Insights February 2023


January 2023

1/1/2023
I will ask for your indulgence regarding the length of this month’s Market Insights.   
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December 2022

12/1/2022
Last month, the election was upon us and many thought that there would be a “red wave” in the House and maybe, just maybe, the Republicans would win the majority in the Senate as well.  
Continue Reading - Market Insights December 2022


November 2022

11/1/2022
The markets have remained in a whipsaw between hope and fear as it digests news relating to inflation.
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October 2022

10/1/2022
Well, we now have three quarters of 2022 in the books and it was quite a month and a quarter.  
Continue Reading - Market Insights October 2022