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In early April, with the onset of a major shift in U.S. trade policy, global financial market volatility increased materially. The U.S. Treasury and currency markets saw unusual trading activity, which spilled into the stock market. In the ensuing days, a stream of reports and articles began questioning the credibility of the U.S. dollar (USD) […]
While computers have only been around since the 1950s, our fascination with artificial intelligence goes all the way back to early recorded human history. As a species, we can’t help but want to project human qualities onto non-human things. The first known robot was built in ancient Greece, an automatic maid that would pour wine […]
Many investors have seen or heard periodic ads for alternative investments or read about them in various business and investment sources. The natural questions are: What exactly are alternatives, and do they belong in my portfolio? These are specialized investments, and while they have some attractive qualities and can serve a valuable role in an overall investment […]
In life, few things put us at the mercy of our emotions the way investing can. The last three years in the markets have been especially unnerving, exhibiting the plot elements of a Shakespeare play. We witnessed drama as the world locked down during Covid, a supernatural-like intervention by Congress and the Federal Reserve to […]
As a key tenet of our mission at Clifford Swan is to preserve and grow our clients’ wealth, inflation protection is always on our minds. Recently, however, the topic has made national headlines, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the year ended March 2022 rising 8.5% versus the previous year—the highest jump since 1981. […]
It’s no secret that ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) investing is more than a passing fad. ESG investors select companies with a focus on how the business impacts the environment, manages relationships with employees, customers, partners, and communities, and maintains fair and transparent corporate governance. These criteria matter to the investing public, which over the past […]
Over the last decade, many events have occurred that have affected the economy, the stock market, and the level of interest rates. Let’s take a look at this period—at the market circumstances entering the decade, what has actually happened, and what we might have learned from it.Entering 2010, the market (as measured by the S&P […]
In 1965, a company in the S&P 500 Index had an average life of 33 years. Incredibly, that number is now down to 18 years and falling.What’s driving the change? Technology has a lot to do with it as entire industries have been reshaped, from the way we shop for clothes to how we power […]
I began my investment counseling career in 1979. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) ranged between a low of 797 and a high of 897 that year (the DJIA is currently trading around the 24,000 to 25,000 level). I recall the euphoria investors felt when the index crossed 1,000 in November 1980, for the first […]
There are great quotations about many areas of human affairs, and the field of investing is no exception. Let’s take a look at a few of them and see how they might apply to today’s investing environment. “Markets do not go up and down on good or bad, they go up and down on better or worse.” — Richard Bernstein, longtime Wall Street strategist […]
The U.S. economy may be at an inflation inflection point. Oil prices have doubled since February of 2016, and the election of Donald Trump as the President of the United States has added stimulus concerns. Expectations of substantial fiscal and tax initiatives could spur additional economic growth and subsequently increase inflation. However, the market is […]
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