Economic Update 10-5-2014
PIMCO Elects Daniel Ivascyn as Group Chief Investment Officer
Firm Names Andrew Balls, Mark Kiesel, Virginie Maisonneuve, Scott Mather and Mihir Worah Chief Investment Officers
September 26, 2014 (Newport Beach, CA): PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, has elected Daniel Ivascyn to serve as Group Chief Investment Officer (“Group CIO”), succeeding William H. Gross who has left the firm. In addition, the firm appointed Andrew Balls, CIO Global; Mark Kiesel, CIO Global Credit; Virginie Maisonneuve, CIO Equities; Scott Mather, CIO U.S. Core Strategies; and Mihir Worah, CIO Real Return and Asset Allocation. Douglas Hodge, PIMCO’s Chief Executive Officer, and Lew “Jay” Jacobs, President, will continue to serve as the firm’s senior executive leadership team, spearheading PIMCO’s business strategy, client service and the firm’s operations. Continue reading
Economic Update 9-29-2014
In breaking news this morning, Bill Gross is leaving the company he founded for Janus Capital Group.
Economic Update 9-15-2014
U.S. stocks gained over a percent on the week, led by early speculation (later validated) that the Fed would keep an accommodative tone in their post-meeting statement. In news abroad, sentiment was perhaps validated by the People’s Bank of China lending a significant amount ($81 billion) to the five largest banks to ease the slowdown, although that may have helped U.S. sentiment more than it did foreign. From a sector standpoint, health care and materials gained over a percent, while consumer discretionary and energy barely gained on the week.
The US dollar gained again on Wednesday following the Fed meeting, on the order of almost a percent. As we discussed last week, currency values can generally fluctuate for a number of reasons—in this case, a planned end of QE as well as higher interest rate projections for coming years, which remove some inflation risk. Continue reading
Economic Update 9-15-2014
U.S. stocks suffered a down albeit quiet week, with a variety of mixed messages and lack of any strong positive catalysts to take indexes higher. Smaller-caps suffered on par with large-caps, but foreign equities overall lagged domestic names. From an industry standpoint in the U.S., technology was the only positive-performing group on the week (seemingly helped by Apple’s iPhone 6 release and introduction of their wristwatch), while energy and utilities suffered the worst—not surprising due to weaker crude prices and fears of higher interest rates.
A 1% gain in the U.S. dollar served as a headwind for the bulk of foreign markets. In developed nations, Japanese equities were only down a half-percent, while Europe and the U.K suffered declines of 1-2%. Emerging markets experienced the worst week, led by weakness in Brazil (-10%) as Moody’s downgraded their outlook from stable to negative due to ‘sustained low growth and worsening debt metrics.’ Support for the current president appeared to solidify—lowering chances for change during upcoming elections in a few weeks there. Hopes for change through leadership reshuffling often add an element of bullish optimism to EM equities, especially in the wake of a new reformer (as we’ve witnessed in India this year), although the change has to occur within a certain time limit. If chances for reform (i.e. getting conditions/policies more inline with what developed markets deep appropriate) dissipate, often, so do the returns. Russia and China were also down last week, but by only half as much as Brazil. Continue reading
Economic Update 9-8-2014
U.S. equities moved slowly higher on the week. From a sector standpoint, consumer staples led with a 1% gain, followed by utilities, while energy fell back, losing almost -2% on the week. Large-caps continued to outperform small-caps domestically.
Developed market foreign stocks were mixed, with half-percent gains in Europe and Japan, while the U.K. fell backward by almost a percent. Emerging markets were the leaders again on the week, this time led by Russia, China and Poland—the former due to a reported cease-fire with Ukraine (strange being that they were never an official participant, but involved nonetheless).
The seesaw in fixed income continued, with mid- to long-rates moving higher by 10-15 bps on some stronger economic growth numbers—consequently, long bonds suffered the brunt of the damage, but the higher volatility didn’t help any segments to a positive degree, at least in the U.S. Some areas like high yield corporate were lower on a seasonal change from summer slumber to an autumn-like higher-issuance mode, creating some spread widening. Continue reading
PORTFOLIO TRADE DAY!
TODAY (FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th, 2014) is trade day for the LSA models listed below.
Please login to the LSA site to view all changes:
Revisions are NOW POSTED today, September 3, 2014.
Private Client (Not Traditional)
PC Tax Efficient
PC L100K 75-100
PC Blended
Schwab NTF (Not Traditional)
BME
CBP
THESE ARE THE ONLY MODELS WE ARE REVISING AT THIS TIME!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at support@LSAportfolios.com or call us at (866) 581-5724.
LSA will be making changes to the models listed below to be traded on Friday, September 5, 2014. Revisions are all posted online and ready to view and prepare to trade. These are the ONLY models that we are making revisions to at this time.
The portfolio revision video explanation and presentation has also be posted under “Monitoring Reports/Portfolio Management today! Please login to the LSA website to view detailed information behind this round of revisions.
** TRADE DATE SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 5, 2014! **
Private Client (No changes to PC Traditional strategies)
PC Tax Efficient
PC L100K 75-100
PC Blended
Schwab NTF (No changes to Schwab NTF Traditional strategies)
BME
CBP
THESE ARE THE ONLY MODELS WE ARE REVISING AT THIS TIME!
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at support@LSAportfolios.com or call us at (866) 581-5724.
Amid a week of light trading ahead of the long Labor Day/Back-to-School holiday weekend, domestic equity markets continued marching higher. The S&P 500 index cleared the 2,000 psychological price barrier for the first time, more than 16 years after the index surpassed the 1,000 level in February 1998. The positive week was helped by a stronger Q2 real GDP report, robust durable goods orders, and upbeat consumer confidence reinforced by multiple survey indices. Small cap outperformed mid and large cap stocks as investor sentiments were high. Energy, utilities, and healthcare sectors outperformed industrials, consumer defensive, and technology sectors. Continue reading
U.S. stocks experienced another positive week, with U.S. large outperforming other segments and foreign equity. From a sector standpoint, financials and industrials outperformed while telecom and energy lagged with the weakest, yet still positive, returns.
Outside the U.S., returns were led by the larger emerging markets, with Russia, Brazil and India all gaining upwards of +2%. Japanese and Chinese stocks were two of the rare losing regions on the week. There certainly appears to be a shift towards higher levels of comfort in emerging markets, as economic conditions may have bottomed, while concern has risen in developed Europe due to lack of growth influences—recent returns reflect this evolution.
Bonds sold off on the week, with yields backing up from lows the prior week on stronger economic news and perhaps perceptions of the Fed minutes pointing to hawkishness. As expected, longer duration/low coupon debt such as Treasuries felt the bulk of the pain, while shorter duration and floating rate debt experienced the largest boost. Year-to-date, long Treasuries remain in the lead, but the majority of bond groups are in the positive. The dollar strengthened by a percent or so, but foreign debt performed well on the week despite the headwind—especially European bonds—as lackluster economic data pointed to additional accommodative measures. Continue reading
Stocks experienced a positive week, as geopolitical concerns again faded into the background until later in the week. From a sector standpoint, health care and technology shares gained several percentage points while energy and financials lagged—the former coupled with falling petroleum price trends.
Foreign markets experienced higher-profile news than in the U.S. Other than a few outliers, the bulk of nations experienced positive returns, led by the European periphery, Brazil and India. Prospects in those areas appeared a bit more promising than in core Europe and Japan, although returns among regions didn’t differ a great deal. Continue reading
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