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Monthly Market Update

The Monthly Market Update is part of our ongoing commitment to investor education and research. These posts often spark discussion and provide insight into our perspective on current financial markets and economic events.

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Most Recent Update

June 2025 Monthly Market Update

Stocks saw steep declines early in the second quarter as the severity of the April 2nd tariff announcements caught investors by surprise. These new tariffs included broad-based import duties as well as targeted levies on steel, aluminum, and autos. By April 8th, the S&P 500 was down 11.2% from the start of the quarter and […]

September 2018 Economic Dashboard

Wall Street loves an anniversary and the 10th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers failure was no exception.  We won’t go into the causes of the failure and subsequent Great Recession as they have been told and re-told many times.  One lesson of Lehman was that anything was possible in terms of financial calamity, so what […]

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August 2018 Economic Dashboard

Perhaps everyone can breathe a sigh of relief now. Almost seven months to the day, the S&P 500 finally hit a new all-time high on August 24th. After the index peaked on January 26th it quickly fell 10% and then muddled along for the next few months, but steady progress since April has finally resulted […]

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July 2018 Economic Dashboard

With the second half of the year officially underway the broad-based S&P 500 and much more concentrated Dow Jones Industrial indices are still chasing their all-time highs reached at the end of January (the technology-laden Nasdaq has already reached new highs). Following the November 2016 election the S&P 500 shot up 38% over the next […]

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June 2018 Economic Dashboard

After much optimism at the start of 2018 that the market would enjoy another strong year of gains (which in and of itself should be viewed as a contra-indicator of the eventual results), the markets have made little or no progress since January 1st. Historically, two major sources of market strength are increasing corporate profits […]

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May 2018 Economic Dashboard

Here in the Midwest it seems like Mother Nature forgot a season, sending summer in a few months early without warning. Perhaps it’s fitting given the temperature of the capital markets right now. Despite great news out of Corporate America (in part due to the tax cuts enacted last year), geopolitical tensions are heating up, […]

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April 2018 Economic Dashboard

Consumers have long been sensitive to changes in prices they pay for everyday goods and services. The double-digit inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s has long given way to the more predictable 2% annual gains we have experienced for the past 25 years. The severe recession that followed the Financial Crisis of 2008 actually […]

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March 2018 Economic Dashboard

The first quarter of 2018 started off with a bang as stock market indexes climbed over 6% by January 26, one of the better starts to a new year.  After a placid 2017, meaning little or no volatility, investors were spooked by the January labor report that suggested wage inflation was accelerating and the Federal […]

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February 2018 Economic Dashboard

So much for another quiet year. Throughout all of 2017 the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices never declined more than 3% from their latest highs on their way to full-year total returns in excess of 20%. The momentum continued into January as it seemed like we were on our way to another great year. […]

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January 2018 Economic Dashboard

As if last year’s stellar performance wasn’t enough, the momentum has continued right along into 2018. The S&P 500 returned 5.62% in January, the best start to a year in nearly three decades. Historically a strong start to the year bodes well for the rest of the year, but there are some technical factors to […]

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December 2017 Economic Dashboard

Happy New Year! 2017 turned out to be one of the best years for stocks since the bull market began in March of 2009. Market advances were broad-based, as small, mid-size and large company indexes all reached new all-time highs, as did many international markets. Even long-time laggard Japan reached new multi-year highs in the […]

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