The Brexit vote caught the market off-guard and though recovered nicely, Brexit left more questions than answers with resolution far in the distance. Business in Britain will not come to a complete stop and the exposure of most US firms appears to be limited. It’s too early to make sector changes so investors should stay […]
Author: David Simpson, CFA
Markets Hit New Highs As Terror Grips Globe
The week ended on upbeat in spite of the tragedies, which is an indication of the resiliency of the markets.
Markets End First Half on Upbeat
US equity market recovered nicely from Brexit to finish the second quarter mostly in the black. Also, markets end first half on similar gains The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.4% while the S&P was up 1.9%. Small caps were up even more in the quarter with Russell 2000 clocking an impressive 3.4% but […]
Decisions Need To Be Made Before Smooth Brexit
After the Conservatives select a new prime minister sometime in September, several financial and structural issues will have be addressed before progress is made on a smooth Brexit. The financial decisions include phase out of UK’s EU budget contributions and what to to with joint research projects slated to end after Brexit. What are they […]
Brexit Outlook Lacks Coherence
Initial analysis on Britain’s exit from the EU has been all over the map and has more to do with the personal biases of the prognosticator than substance. I think we need to know who the next prime minister will be (Johnson, May or Gove?) and allow the other leaders time to hammer out positions. Meanwhile, financial […]
Scratching the Surface of Brexit
Seems hard to believe Britain actually voted to leave the European Union. It opens up a can of a hundred worms such as myriads of new political and financial accords to be renegotiated, new immigration policies established and opens new internal divisions among the nations of the UK. Though ground zero was the UK and the plummeting pound, implications […]
UK Exit Roils Markets
Its early but UK vote to leave the European Union was unexpected and investors sent global markets into a tailspin. In my thirty years of investment experience I put this event in the class of the Soviet Union breakup, 9-11, Iraqi war and Greek disturbance. Each event created golden buying opportunities. Not confident this one follows […]
Genesis of DOL’s Fiduciary Rule and Why the Political Battle Wages On
Here’s an article from CFAInsitute describing the DOL Rule Origin. By Jim Allen, CFA Baseball great Yogi Berra once said of a National League pennant race, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” If a group of nine industry organizations has its way, the Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) fiduciary rule, issued in April to address conflicts […]
Fed Press Conference: Uncertainty
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) of the Federal Reserve met today and held its target federal feds rate unchanged after their initial hike in December. Fed Chairman Janet Yellen’s press conference after the meeting can be be summed in one word: Uncertainty. I feel she is a very articulate individual but the gist of what […]
Fiduciary Duty Definition
Here is a good legal definition of fiduciary duty from Cornell Law website. A fiduciary duty is a legal duty to act solely in another party’s interests. Parties owing this duty are called fiduciaries. The individuals to whom they owe a duty are called principals. Fiduciaries may not profit from their relationship with their principals […]
