Week 6: Markets Volatile, But Not Broken – April 6, 2026
Good morning, As we enter the sixth week of war, markets have now delivered four consecutive down weeks followed by last week’s rebound. The overall picture, however, remains largely unchanged. Volatility is elevated, with markets reacting more to the daily flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz—which has been gradually improving—and to energy prices, rather than to shifting political rhetoric or repeatedly […]
Five Charts for the Week That Was: April 6, 2026
Chief Economist Jeanette Garretty provides 5 economic charts covering topics including payroll numbers, healthcare jobs, unemployment rates, mortgage rates, and credit card delinquency rates.
Forgotten Annuities, Found Opportunities
A fair amount of people are sitting on old annuity contracts they haven’t thought about in years. These contracts typically carry values between $50,000 and $250,000 – and are often modest relative to a household’s broader balance sheet. Sometimes annuities were purchased years ago from a family friend entering the insurance business, or as a simple tax-deferral vehicle that never got revisited. Because […]
Week of April 5, 2026 – Weekly Economic Commentary
Economist Mohamed El-Erian, former CEO of bond market giant PIMCO, has a useful, intuitive way of thinking about exogenous shocks, i.e. unexpected events with unpredictable timing that occur outside of the normal framework of industries and national economies. He posits that there are three phases: An initial Phase One of, in the case of the Iranian War, […]