Newsletters

Dear Clients: U.S. stocks capped an exceptional three-year run in 2025, with the S&P 500 posting its third consecutive double-digit total return.  The index gained 17.9% in 2025, building on returns of 25.0% in 2024 and 26.3% in 2023.  Since the bear market low on October 12, 2022, the S&P 500 has [...]

Dear Clients: We’re pleased patient investors like you were again rewarded in the third quarter of 2025, helping you make strong progress towards reaching your financial goals.  This year has clearly not been a relaxing, drama-free upswing.  As is often the case, investors were severely tested earlier this year and had to [...]

Dear Clients: If you like roller coasters, you loved the stock market in the first half of 2025.  We certainly had an interesting “ride.”  We don’t focus on short-term performance, but are pleased client equity portfolios generated strong performance during the second quarter and first half of 2025, both on an absolute [...]

Dear Clients: The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high (ATH) on February 19 (just after Valentine’s Day), its 60th ATH since the beginning of 2024. Investors’ love affair with stocks seemed to be in full bloom.  Alas, heartache was right around the corner, as the S&P 500 plunged into “correction” territory [...]

Dear Clients: As long-term investors, we don’t focus on and try not to get too hung-up on short-term performance, whether good or not so good.  Still, the great news is client equity portfolios produced strong absolute and relative-to-benchmarks performance throughout 2024.  As we’ll discuss, this was particularly satisfying given 1) the “average” [...]

Dear Clients: While we don’t focus on short-term results, we’re pleased to report the strong absolute and relative-to-benchmarks performance for client equity portfolios this year (and last) continued through the quarter ending September 30, 2024.  While nearly 100% of the gain in the S&P 500 Index in the first half of 2024 [...]

Dear Clients: The S&P 500 enjoyed a stellar first half of 2024, hitting 31 all-time highs.  After posting a total return of 10.6% in the first quarter (11th highest since WWII, according to CFRA Research), the S&P 500 continued its upward trajectory in the second quarter with a total return of 4.3%.  [...]

To view a PDF version of this quarter’s letter, please click here. Dear Clients: U.S. stocks posted exceptionally strong performance in the first quarter of 2024, building on the significant gains from the fourth quarter of 2023 and capping a 12-month period that saw the S&P 500 Index generate a total return [...]

To view a PDF version of this quarter's letter, please click here. Dear Clients: After enduring a brutally frigid “winter” in 2022 that saw the worst year for U.S. stocks since the depths of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008 (4th worst for the S&P 500 since 1945) and worst [...]

Dear Clients: We’re glad to put Q3-2023 in the rearview mirror, as the third quarter lived up to its historical billing as the weakest quarter of the year.  As we’ll discuss, interest rates surged, which proved to be a headwind too strong for stocks to overcome.  Nobody knows what lies ahead.  On [...]