Market Perspective

There has been much handwringing about the U.S. Federal Reserve’s (the Fed) persistent efforts to tame inflation and tighten monetary policy by increasing interest rates. …

Apart from the spike associated with the Silicon Valley Bank led banking crisis in March 2023, volatility, as measured by the Cboe® Volatility Index (the …

Investors are facing many challenges and a new investment landscape. Equity valuations are lower, but not cheap, and volatility levels have shifted higher. On the …

A combination of higher interest rates and signs of slowing growth are putting pressure on valuations. Even with February’s market pullback, the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio …

As traders and professional prognosticators hang on every word from Federal Reserve officials, anticipate each data release with tense fingers hovering over keyboards and debate …

The Federal Reserve’s (the Fed) monetary policy transition from accommodative to tightening was sudden – asset purchases to support the economy ended in March 2022, …

If the story of 2022 stock and bond market returns was written as a whodunit, the crack detective protagonist would have a primary suspect list …

Trading volume in S&P 500® Index option contracts set a record in October 2022. As Figure 1 shows, trading volume in options on the bellwether …

Savvy shoppers know a “25% Off” sale is not necessarily a good deal. Is the item discounted from a fair price or did the retailer …

Daily closing values for the Cboe® Volatility Index (the VIX®) have been below its long-term average of 19.61 less than 10% of the time so …