Kicked Like An Empty Can

September 19, 2024 Good morning, Last Thursday’s Morning Note highlighted the deep dichotomy between the stock and bond markets over a recession developing soon. The no-recession bulls with stock market participants and equity market strategists all calling for a 50bps cut on one side, and the hard-landing, recession-may-already-be-here bears, a camp represented by bond market participants, economists, and […]

Last FOMC Meeting Before Election

September 16, 2024 Good morning, Stocks staged an impressive recovery last week. Interestingly, the gains in the major indexes (SPX +4.06%, NASDAQ +5.98%, Russell 2000 +4.39%, Int’l Developed +1.21%, EM +.80%) were almost the perfect mirror-image of the losses sustained respectively the week prior. Volatility is not taking a break. The big event of the […]

Diametrically Opposed

September 12, 2024 Good morning, September, the worst performing month of the year for equities, got off to a rough start last week. Financial news services marched out the perma-bears, and “recession” in internet searches reached a new reaction high. Just when everyone knows the market is going to fall, the market does what it […]

September Already Living Up To Its Reputation

September 9, 2024 Good morning, September’s first week looks a lot like August’s start – down hard for stocks and yields (which means bonds rallied). The uncomfortable difference, however, is that there is no loosely related global “unwind” like August to blame for all the selling last week. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) was down […]

Are We In A Change In Trend?

September 5, 2024 Good morning, It seems counterintuitive for long-term (quarters/years) investors to concern themselves with micro (hours/days) moves in the market. I believe long-term investor success is dependent on portfolios being aligned with long-term market trends. Long-term trends (the simplest examples being bull and bear markets) are all born as short-term trends. The art […]

Welcome Back

September 3, 2024 Good morning, Welcome back! I hope you all had a nice end-of-summer opportunity to recharge. As many of you know, we spent the end of summer moving and we can report that we are happily ensconced in our new home in West Palm Beach, FL. Many have asked, retiring? Hardly, I’m excited […]

NVDA Week

August 26, 2024 Good morning, The new week begins with stocks and bonds following through on last Friday’s Jerome Powell-inspired price action, with markets once again pushing the envelope on how much easing they are prepared to discount. All Powell said was that the “time has come” to adjust policy and there are now 106 […]

August 2024 Monthly Letter

The following is your August 2024 Robertson Stephens Monthly Performance Report. August was unusually eventful for investors right from the start and dashed any hopes of a late summer lull. Disappointing U.S. economic data, together with a surprise interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan, sparked a sharp sell-off across the global equity markets. Panic selling […]