Rearview to Windshield, April 2024

March ‘24 Market Recap: The S&P 500 returned 10.6% in Q1, on a combination of two very powerful forces; dovish central banks and a continued broadening of the AI narrative. The S&P 500 rallied for the fifth straight month in March (a 99th percentile return, in...

Rearview to Windshield, March 2024

February ‘24 Market Recap: Helped by better-than-expected earnings, the S&P 500 (+5.3% total return) clocked a fresh high in Feb. But just 26% of stocks outperformed the index, similar to recent months, and 45% of the index’s gain came from four stocks:...

Aptus Musings: Q4 2023 Earnings Recap

S&P 500 Earnings Recap – Q4 2023 Fox Business (Varney) – Earnings Interview Heading into this year, at the market level, I continued to state that “the burden of proof remains with the bears”. I still agree with this statement at the market level. But,...

Rearview to Windshield, February 2024

January ‘24 Market Recap → Good Start, Bad Breadth: Despite the S&P 500 rally, the equal-weighted S&P 500 fell 0.7% as breadth narrowed to just 34% (% of stocks ahead of S&P 500), a bottom 3rd percentile in history. The “Nifty 50” gained 3.0%,...

Aptus Musings: Earnings Ahead

S&P 500 Earnings Preview – Q4 2023 It’s common knowledge that if the market endures two (2) consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, it is considered a recession (most of the time, not every time—as we learned last year). Well, the market had been in an...