Is Roth Conversion Right for You?
Roth IRAs can be a great way to turn your retirement assets into future tax-free income. Since the money inside the Roth has already been taxed, you don’t have to pay taxes on qualified distributions, and you don’t have to take Required Minimum Distributions. When markets experience a down or volatile year and your portfolio […]
Stocks Surge to New Highs to Start 2024
By John Lau April 1, 2024 – The rally in the first quarter of 2024 was a positive combination of stable economic growth, falling inflation, impending Fed rate cuts and ever-growing enthusiasm towards artificial intelligence (AI) propelling stocks higher, as the S&P 500 rose above 5,000 for the first time and hit new all-time highs. […]
Small Cap Q1 2024 Commentary
Q1 An Uneventful Quarter The first quarter was relatively uneventful in our portfolio. The Small Cap Composite finished the quarter flat, trailing the Russell 2000 Index. The stocks of our largest positions were mixed, some helping, some hurting, causing the rather pedestrian performance. Underneath the stock performance the fundamental picture is quite positive. We are […]
Raj Bhattacharyya on NASDAQ TradeTalks
April 1, 2024 – CEO Raj Bhattacharyya appeared on Nasdaq TradeTalks with host Jill Malandrino to discuss “Why M&A Will Play a Pivotal Role in the Wealth Management Industry” – a panel focused on the impact that M&A continues to have in the industry, what leaders are seeing in 2024, and how these trends in growth will continue to shape wealth […]
Building An Integrated Stack One Piece At A Time
March 22, 2024 – COO/CTO Vikram Chugh was featured in the Wealthmanagement series “What’s In My Wealthstack?” discussing the architecture of Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, LLC’ technology systems. “We’ve built an end-to-end technology stack from scratch, one piece at a time,” said Chugh. To read the full piece, click here.
Kinda Boring
March 18, 2024 Good morning, Stocks and bonds had a bumpy week following stronger CPI/PPI inflation data, and the corresponding expectation re-set by the bond market around inflation and future Fed decisions. For stocks, it was another week of inching higher. The S&P 500 Index closed the week up another whooping +0.13%. It was worse […]
Steady As She Goes
March 14, 2024 Good morning, I must admit that my description of recent market behavior as “sideways” and corrective looks a little specious when the market was setting marginal new highs just two days ago. Momentum has slowed, however. In fact, NDR’s Daily Momentum Model, a reliable short-term indicator (days), flashed a sell-signal this week. […]
Jeanette Garretty on Bloomberg Daybreak Asia
March 19, 2024 – Chief Economist and Managing Director, Jeanette Garretty appeared on Bloomberg Daybreak Asia to discuss her market perspective and how The Fed in the US will act later this week. Jeanette touched upon commercial real estate, CPI and jobs numbers in her discussion. Listen here.
More Correction Into The Ides of March? Probably
March 11, 2024 Good morning, Last week, we heard from Fed Chair Powell reiterating his patient stance in front of Congress, noting that while rate cuts are expected later this year, additional evidence of disinflationary trends is necessary first. The first evidentiary data for J Powell came Friday morning. The February jobs report was unusually […]
The Rare Mid-Week Day Off
March 7, 2024 Good morning, There isn’t much to add this morning to Monday’s Morning Note. Chair Powell updated the markets with his forward Fed view yesterday and provided no surprises as usual. The lack of any meaningful market move suggests that the market’s forward pricing is finally in line with the Fed’s forward expectations. That only […]
Stiffer Challenges
March 4, 2024 Good morning, The equity market bonfire continued last week, although at a less torrid pace. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) was up +.95% on the week, with Friday’s +.80% move constituting the bulk of the week’s move. For all the heavy lifting that the large cap growth stocks (Mag 7) have done, […]
February 2024 Monthly Letter
February’s overarching market message: There’s a new sheriff in town, and his name is not Reggie Hammond or Jerome Powell – it is Nvidia. “New” may be arguable to some, after all, NVDA was one of the Magnificent 7 that accounted for all the equity market gains over the first 10 months of last year. […]