Forbes (March 22)
“The most unique aspect to this market crisis is the sheer speed of the decline. The S&P 500 has dropped 30% in a month, in the crisis of 2008 a 30% drop from the market’s high took almost a year. If 2008’s decline was a Toyota Camry, this decline is a Ferrari.”
Market Watch (December 21)
So far the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is up 22% in 2019. Since 1950, the average has climbed about “75% of the time, with an average return of about 8.9% in the following year, when it finishes the previous year with a return of at least 20%…. For the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes, the gains tend to be even richer than those of their blue-chip counterpart.”
The Economist (August 25)
“America’s bull market in equities turned 3,453 days old” on August 22. “Since hitting a low of 666 in March 2009, the S&P 500 index has increased more than fourfold, driven by strong corporate profits, low inflation, stable economic growth and a boatload of central-bank stimulus. Despite five corrections of at least 10%, the index has never entered bear territory, defined as a drop of at least 20%. Most commentators are declaring this to be the longest bull market in history.”
Tags: Bear, Bull market, Central bank, Economic growth, Equities, Inflation, Profits, S&P 500, Stimulus, U.S.
Market Watch (July 31)
“Both Facebook and Netflix saw their shares fall into bear-market territory on Monday, defined by a decline of at least 20% from a recent peak, and nearly 40% of the S&P 500’s technology sector is in correction territory.” Some say there’s been a seismic shift, but “it remains to be seen if the recent moves represent a sea change for a reemergence for value, which has been overshadowed by growth plays, or if moves of the past few days are a blip.”
Tags: Bear market, Correction, Facebook, Growth Blip, Netflix, S&P 500, Shares, Technology sector, Value
Wall Street Journal (January 9)
“The S&P 500 inched higher Monday, extending this year’s run of records. Stocks have begun 2018 on an upbeat note, buoyed by investors’ optimism over the global economy and bets that central banks are unlikely to pressure markets by raising interest rates faster than expected.”
Tags: 2018, Central banks, Economy, Interest rates, Investors, Optimism, Records, S&P 500, Stocks, Upbeat
Fortune (January 4)
“By the end of the first three working days of the year, the U.K.’s top bosses will each have earned on average as much as a typical worker will take home in all of 2018, according to a report. While the difference in compensation appears stark, it narrowed slightly compared with the previous year.” Studies show “earnings for CEOs in the U.K.’s benchmark FTSE 100 dropped by a fifth in 2016 to 4.5 million pounds ($5.4 million)” and that the CEO-to-worker pay ratio stood at around 120 to 1, much lower than the 347 to 1 of S&P 500 companies.
Wall Street Journal (May 17)
“Activist investors, a perennial nuisance for chief executives, are becoming an existential threat. Since January, they have helped push out the leaders of three high-profile S&P 500 companies” (AIG, CSX Corp. and Arconic Inc.). Moreover, “they are gunning for the CEOs at other companies,” such as Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. and Avon Products Inc. “So far in 2017, activists have started nine campaigns targeting top management, the fastest pace on record.”
Institutional Investor (January 9)
“Tiger-related funds are not celebrating the market’s 2016 surge.” While some “stock market investors have been whooping it up after the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index posted an unexpectedly strong 9.5 percent gain last year,” Tiger funds were left licking their wounds. Wrong-footed by the election of Donald Trump, many Tigers tumbled far into the red, undoing solid performance earlier in the year.
Tags: 2016, Election, Investors, Performance, S&P 500, Surge, Tiger funds, Trump, Wrong-footed
Bloomberg (January 4)
“For the first year since 1989, foreigners sold Japanese stocks and missed a rally.” The TOPIX index gained 8.9% in dollars and 21% in euros, but overseas investors missed out on some gains by offloading more than 250 billion yen in Japanese shares last year. “The Topix capped a 9.9 percent gain in local-currency terms last year, its fourth straight annual increase. Combined with the yen’s resilience, that meant that the Topix outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in dollars for the first time since 2008” and its “gain in euros was triple that of the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.”
Tags: 1989, Dollars, Euros, Foreigners, Gains, Increase, Japan, Offloading, Rally, S&P 500, Stocks, Stoxx Europe 600, Topix, Yen
Washington Post (December 12, 2013)
Manufacturing has bounced back in the U.S. since the Great Recession, rising each year since 2010. “Profits are soaring — in 2012, after-tax profits of manufacturing firms hit a record high of $290 billion. Share values have soared with them. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Industrials Index has risen 59 percent more than the overall 500-stock index since 2009.”
Tags: Great Recession, Industrials, Manufacturing, Profits, S&P 500, Share values, U.S.
