Commentary

Each month, the BCWM Portfolio Management team publishes an Investment Commentary that examines the latest developments in financial markets and the economy. We filter out the noise and present the information most relevant to our investment strategies and management of our clients’ portfolios.

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Blame China

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January stunk it up. The first two weeks of January really reeked. January stunk it up so badly that it made 2015 smell good. And February is starting out like it wants to make January smell good. After the first two weeks of January, U.S. markets were down about 8%. Foreign markets were slightly worse.…
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WORST START EVER!

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No, I’m not talking about the Philadelphia 76’ers or the Titanic. I’m talking about the stock market in 2016. In the first week of trading this year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 6.2%. Foreign stocks (the MSCI All World Index ex-US) declined 5.8%. According to pundits on CNBC that is the worst 5-day start…
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Don’t Be in a Hurry to Get That Mortgage

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The Fed raised interest rates last week – a big whopping ¼ of 1% – the first increase in almost a decade. We’ve known this was coming for months… actually thought it might have occurred in September, so the increase in December was not a surprise. The only surprise would have been if they HADN’T…
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Fed Does Nothing

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August and September were the kind of months that make you question why you ever invested in the stock market in the first place. Months like August and September make you forget how much money you made in the stock market PRIOR to August and ONLY focus on how much you lost. (Even worse, with…
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The China Sky is Not Falling

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Due to the stock market selloff and extreme volatility we experienced in August, we sent an e-blast last week reminding our readers that this is not 2008-2009 and that the recessionary conditions that loomed then are nowhere to be found today. In 2008-2009: We had a fragile banking system and a major banking crisis. We…
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