The Markets American stocks bounced last week like a skier pounding moguls on an Olympic freestyle course. Some found it difficult to understand why stocks had their best week since December of 2013. Barron’s said: “We just can’t figure out why the markets were strong. It’s not like the news this week was terribly good.…
This week’s key economic data showed that the performance of the economy in January was weaker than expected. The shortfalls caused stocks to decline and mortgage rates to improve, but the impact was surprisingly small. Both the Employment report and the ISM Manufacturing data saw big misses. Against a consensus forecast of 185K, the economy…
The Markets If investors were fishermen, they’d probably toss January 2014 right back into the stream. At the end of the month, U.S. stocks (S&P 500) had lost 3.6 percent of their value, according to Barron’s. Other asset classes hadn’t fared well either. Bond yields fell and emerging markets were all roiled up. If you…