Author Archives: LSAConnect

Economic Update 8-26-2024 U.S. stocks ended positively for the week, despite low summer trading volumes, with decent economic results and the dovish tone of the FOMC July minutes. Gains culminated on Fri. by the further dovish tone of Fed Chair … Continue reading →

Economic Update 8-19-2024 U.S. stocks reversed course from the prior week’s volatility, earning the best weekly returns in a year. By sector, growth leadership resumed with technology gaining nearly 8% (led by a 20% rise in NVIDIA), followed by consumer … Continue reading →

Economic Update 8-12-2024 U.S. stocks experienced one of the more interesting weeks in some time—in fact, it featured the single worst and single best days since 2022. By sector, industrials and energy led with gains of over a percent each, … Continue reading →

Economic Update 8-05-2024 In what some have called one of the more important weeks of the year thus far, the U.S stock market did not disappoint in terms of volatility. While a Wed. rally came along with Fed hints toward … Continue reading →

Economic Update 7-29-2024 U.S. stocks were mixed again last week with ‘value’ ending in the positive, outperforming ‘growth,’ which saw sharp declines. Small cap also ended several percentage points higher, continuing a stretch of recent rapid outperformance. By sector, utilities, … Continue reading →

Economic Update 7-22-2024 U.S. stocks behaved unusually last week, with a sharp reversal downward in large cap growth segments, offset by better returns from cyclicals, which included value and especially strong relative results from small cap stocks. In fact, the … Continue reading →

Economic Update 7-15-2024 U.S. stocks saw gains last week, with small caps up sharply relative to large caps, reversing weakness from much of this year. By sector, ‘value’ outperformed ‘growth,’ with utilities, materials, and health care seeing the strongest results … Continue reading →

Economic Update 7-08-2024 U.S. stocks gained last week, with large cap growth outperforming, while small caps lagged with a decline. Fed Chair Powell’s speech at the ECB Forum on Central Banking in Portugal was taken well by markets, noting the … Continue reading →

Economic Update 7-01-2024 U.S. stocks were mixed last week, with large caps little changed, and small caps seeing gains. The end of the quarter has tended to be an unusual time, due to a variety of portfolio clean-up, ‘window dressing,’ … Continue reading →

Economic Update 6-24-2024 U.S. stocks saw moderate gains in the four-day trading week, with mixed economic data to react to. By sector, consumer discretionary, energy, financials, and industrials all saw gains of at least a percent, which led to sharper … Continue reading →

Economic Update 6-17-2024 U.S. stocks saw gains, led by improved inflation numbers mid-week, and subsequent drop in interest rates, as well as seemingly continued optimism over artificial intelligence (particularly as related to new Apple products). By sector, technology again led … Continue reading →

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) kept the federal funds rate unchanged at 5.25-5.50% in their June meeting, continuing the range set since July 2023 without any dissenting votes. The formal statement was only slightly adjusted to reflect “modest” … Continue reading →