Can Energy Stocks Close the Performance Gap with the S&P 500?
July 25th, 2024
Can Energy Stocks Close the 10-Year Performance Gap with the S&P 500? The Energy sector has been topsy-turvy over the past few years. In 2022, when the S&P 500 experienced a bear market and 9 of 11 sectors posted negative performance, the Energy sector delivered a banner year (+65.7%). The next best performer that yearRead Entire Article…
Is the AI Boom Also an Energy Play?
May 24th, 2024
Is the Artificial Intelligence Boom Also an Energy Play? There is plenty of excitement about the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform business. For technology companies driving the innovation and building the infrastructure, this excitement has been reflected in strong stock performance over the past year or so.1 Generative AI—which is AI capable ofRead Entire Article…
Looking Back At Last Year’s Regional Banking Crisis
May 9th, 2024
The Regional Banking Crisis, One Year Later A little over a year ago, the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank New York sent shockwaves through markets, with many concerned about the health of the U.S. and global financial system. Fears of a second Global Financial Crisis permeated the news, and expectations for recessionRead Entire Article…
What Investors Should Know About Bitcoin ETFs
March 14th, 2024
What Investors Should Understand About Bitcoin ETFs Bitcoin is having another moment. As we write, the cryptocurrency is trading near all-time highs, riding a wave of enthusiasm that accompanied the SEC approval – and subsequent issuance – of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).1 Investor enthusiasm has been palpable. Since the January 11 launch of Bitcoin ETFs,Read Entire Article…
Will AI and Tech Continue To Drive Markets In 2024?
February 14th, 2024
Will Technology Stocks and AI Enthusiasm Continue to Propel Markets? The best-performing sectors in 2023 were Technology (+57.8%) and Communications Services (+55.8%), the latter of which includes companies like Google, Meta, and Netflix. But the real story in 2023 was of the “Magnificent Seven” stocks, which drove a lion’s share of the stock market’s full-yearRead Entire Article…
Investment Themes for Artificial Intelligence (AI)
December 8th, 2023
“Themes” for Investing in Artificial Intelligence The race to develop and deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is on. According to JPMorgan data, US and global private investment in AI totaled $53 billion and $94 billion, respectively, in 2021. This level of investment marked a more than fivefold increase in real terms compared to the fiveRead Entire Article…
Higher Interest Rates Help Some Companies, Hurt Others
October 13th, 2023
Are Higher Interest Rates Hurting Companies? Most readers and investors are aware that in the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to the zero bound, drastically reducing the cost of capital. Interest rates started to tick back up – slowly – in the late 2010s, but then theRead Entire Article…
“A Sure Thing” is Usually the Riskiest Investment of All
August 31st, 2023
Another Reason It’s So Important to Manage Risk For investors seeking attractive long-term returns, there are a lot of risks to navigate when investing in the capital markets. Fortunately, there are also a lot of ways to manage those risks.1 Some risks are very familiar to most investors. Take concentration risk, for example. While investingRead Entire Article…