US Stocks fell this week due to concerns about weak growth especially after Wednesday’s report of falling durable goods orders in February.  Surging new home sales and falling initial claims for unemployment did little to shore up these concerns.  Foreign stocks generally performed better than US stocks as foreign markets ended mixed.  Treasury prices fell […]

US and foreign stocks had strong gains for the week after comments from the Federal Reserve indicated that the FED is watching the strong dollar and falling prices before raising interest rates.  Even though the FED removed the words that they can “be patient” the statement seemed to indicate a willingness not to move too […]

Recency bias is a term behavioral scientists use to describe our tendency to assign greater relevance to more recent events and diminish the relevance of events further past.  In investing we see this often.  In the 1990s people expected double digit returns in stocks and didn’t pay attention to overvaluation which led to a bubble.  […]

When it comes to Wall Street, sometimes good news is bad news.  On Friday the Labor Department reported a stronger than expected jobs number and US Stocks and Treasury Bonds sold off sharply on fears that the Federal Reserve’s rate increases will come sooner (June) rather than later (4th quarter).  At the same time the […]

Stocks rose after Janet Yellen’s testimony to Congress stressed that the Fed can be patient about raising interest rates but still indicated that the Fed will likely raise rates later this year.  Markets were also buoyed by Greece receiving preliminary approval of a four month extension of its bailout.  On Friday, a disappointing downward revision […]