Monday, April 12, 2021
The S&P 500® Index returned a
staggering 56.35% for the 12-month period ending March 31 while the Bloomberg
Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (the Agg) returned just 0.71%. This
disparity has helped intensify the asset allocation debate. A troublesome
narrative is taking hold that implies investors have no choice but to endure
the risks of the equity market, but risk management remains essential and
recent market conditions favor managing risk with index options.
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Wednesday, April 7, 2021
The S&P 500® Index returned 6.17%
in the first quarter of 2021. With monthly returns of -1.01%, 2.76% and 4.38%
for January, February and March, respectively, the advance came in fits and
starts with nearly all of the first quarter return generated after March 4. After
January’s decline, the S&P 500® Index climbed 6.01% through
February 12 on positive-trending developments surrounding COVID-19 paired with
growing prospects for additional fiscal stimulus. Over the second half of
February, increasing concerns over rising interest rates and the outlook for
inflation gripped investors and the S&P 500® Index fell 4.13%
from February 12 through March 4. Congress passed a new economic stimulus
package in early March and the S&P 500® Index returned 5.53%
from March 4 through quarter-end.
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Friday, March 12, 2021
After posting strong returns in 2019 and 2020, inflation concerns have driven the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (the Agg) to a loss of 2.15% on a year-to-date basis through February. The bond market is off to a worse start in 2021 than it had in 2018, a year in which the Agg had a total return of just one one-hundredth of one percent.
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