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Market Outlooks
Our Valuation-Driven Asset Allocation Views Looking Beyond COVID-19
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While we haven’t faced a global pandemic of this kind before and the path to normalization is uncertain, we are encouraged by the aggressive policy response from central banks and governments which we think will be effective in averting a financial crisis. Thus, we think the recent sell-off has created significant opportunities for long-term investors like us. Read our commentary to learn our latest thinking.
Fixed Income Insights
Weekly Wire: It’s always darkest before the dawn
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It is one thing to understand we are living through an unprecedented, pandemic driven economic downturn, and all together another to learn the US unemployment rate is 14.7% and that 20.5 million of our fellow Americans lost their jobs in April.
Market Outlooks
Weekly Wire: Pick a letter, any letter
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We got our first look at Q1 Gross Domestic Product last week, and as expected, it wasn’t pretty. While the Q1 GDP number is subject to revision, it showed the economy contracted (4.8%) Q to Q.
Behavioral Finance
Win the day
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As a child, my father (himself a financial advisor) had a single obsession—paying off our house.
Market Outlooks
Weekly Wire: How can oil be worth less than nothing?
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They say if you live long enough you really do see everything. Well, last week investors saw something they had never seen before – the price of a barrel of oil going for negative $37, at least based on the May 2020 futures contract on West Texas Intermediate (WTI).
Market Outlooks
A bear market bottom checklist
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A bear market bottom has historically been marked by several economic and market signposts, including depressed investor sentiment, widening credit spreads and a policy response to the systemic shock facing the country. More importantly, as we try to identify when . . .
Market Outlooks
A 30 year perspective, and a bit more perspective on the 30-year mortgage
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Adopting a long-term view on investing and the markets is needed most when it is difficult to do—like right now, when stocks are extremely volatile and under pressure as investors try to determine how COVID-19 and this year’s election will ultimately impact corporate and consumer sentiment and spending, corporate profits, and the pricing of risk assets.
Market Outlooks
Weekly wire: One thing we shouldn’t be stressed about
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Last week was an exceptionally difficult week for risk assets, emphasized by Thursday’s record 1,192 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average – a selloff sparked by growing concern that the Coronavirus could prove to carry a greater weight on global growth than originally thought. Further – and not to pick sides on the political front – the ascendancy of the Sanders campaign became another concerning point for many on Wall Street, given the candidate’s proposed policies generally viewed as negative for the markets. It has been a stressful several days, to say the least.
Market Outlooks
Weekly Wire: Market concerns regarding the Coronavirus
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After reaching an all-time market high on February 19, 2020, US markets began experiencing volatility and fell about 4-5% as of February 24, 2020. To blame is the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), which was first identified in Wuhan, China, but has now spread globally.
Market Outlooks
Weekly Wire: The Coronavirus: History may not repeat, but it does rhyme
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By their nature, exogenous shocks are impossible to model for – we simply don’t know when to expect the unexpected. As exogenous shocks occur, investors will understandably seek to discern their ultimate impact on the economy and the stock market.
Market Outlooks
Weekly Wire: Our “20/20 vision”
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To say investors have had a few things vying for their attention these past few weeks might be the understatement of our brand new year. Consider that so far in January we have seen the market consistently hit all-time highs; the US and Iran approach the brink of war; the Phase 1 US/China trade agreement signed; the “New NAFTA” or USMCA pass the Senate, and that same Senate launch the impeachment trial of President Trump.
Market Outlooks
Weekly Wire: The US, Iran, oil, and the economy... Where do we go from here?
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We have been asked often what we think of US/Iranian hostilities, including how that dynamic might develop and how it might impact the economy. Truth be told, an investment professional should be reluctant to opine on any budding global conflict since discerning the direction it will take is notoriously difficult and it is a bit unseemly to speak of economic growth and financial assets while our troops are in harm’s way.