08 Sep 2006

Posted at 15:35h in The Friday Brief by
Everybody’s on hold; from the Space Shuttle Atlantis, to the Federal Reserve. While NASA hopes to launch today at 11:40 after a three year hold, we hope it will take considerably less time to re-launch the economy. The Fed has decided to hold further rate increases until it gets a better picture of the economy’s health. The Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and the Bank of Korea announced a similar strategy this week. Even OPEC is expected to hold oil production steady when they meet next week to see what happens. Doing so would help avoid a supply-driven run-up in prices. So the world watches the economic data to learn just how fast the US and the global economies are slowing.

01 Jul 2005

Posted at 15:35h in The Friday Brief by
The quarter was remarkable on several fronts; the world mourned and buried a beloved Pope John Paul II, oil prices set new record highs (but not inflation-adjusted highs), but failed to derail corporate earnings which soundly beat analysts’ estimates, and corporate managers felt good enough about their futures to book some healthy acquisitions.  But after digesting three months of mixed economic news and promises of higher rates from the Fed, investors chose to be more optimistic.  During the quarter the S&P 500 gained 1.4% while the tech-heavy NASDAQ rose 3%.  The 30 Dow Jones Industrials didn’t fare so well dropping 1.6% during the same period.  Our three models performed very well in comparison.  Your quarterly reports are in the mail and are available on our website at http://www.beaconinvest.com

27 Sep 2002

Posted at 13:38h in The Friday Brief by
The third quarter is drawing to a close and almost everyone in stocks lost money.  European stocks had some of their biggest losses of the past 15 years led by Europe’s largest economy, Germany.  The German DAX lost 32%, the largest since its introduction in 1987.  The U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 17% for its largest loss since 1987.  France’s CAC 40 fell 24%.  Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 12% and reached a 19-year low during the third quarter.  Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan all lost as much as 10%.  Contrary to the trend, Pakistan rose 16% in response to U.S. economic sanctions being lifted.  In Latin America, Argentina gained 13%, but Brazil declined 38%, the world’s worst performance for the third quarter.  At home, the S&P 500 lost 14%, falling to a 4-year low and the NASDAQ fell 16.4% to a six-year low. 

28 Mar 2002

Posted at 16:05h in The Friday Brief by
Today, economists are declaring the recession is over.  In fact, it was likely over before it was officially announced last fall.  This morning, the government released its data on fourth quarter Gross Domestic Product that showed the economy grew at a 1.7% rate. This strong increase suggests that the first quarter of this year may be the strongest in two years.  Increased spending on the part of the government and the consumer likely fueled growth as strong as 4.2% say the experts.  And that spending is likely to continue as the University of Michigan Confidence indicator rose to a 15-month high of 95.7 in March from a 90.7 in February.  Bloomberg reports that consumer spending grew at a 6.1% annual rate in the fourth quarter, the fastest pace since the second quarter in 1998.