August 2024 market update
After weeks of Olympic-themed press reports about the Fed “sticking the (soft) landing” and safely guiding the economy to a place where inflation is coming down and growth is holding off recession, one very bad labor report flipped the script. The threat of recession is not just in the future, it may be here now, […]
July 2024 market update
At the FOMC meeting in mid-June, the story was the drop in expectations for multiple rate cuts in 2024 to potentially only one rate cut later in the year. However, positive data around inflation and labor markets appears to have counteracted market pessimism about the cautious nature of the Fed’s messaging. As we hit the […]
June 2024 market update
May saw a return to more confidence in the economy and the markets. The Fed met early in the month, and Chairman Powell managed to curb market pessimism by stating that it was unlikely that the Fed’s next move would be a rate hike. The reversal of the upward mini-trend of inflation in February and […]
May 2024 Market Update
April had it all, and most of it was not so great. Inflation is proving sticky again, which forced the market and the Fed to reassess the timing of interest rate cuts. Conflicts intensified in Ukraine and the Middle East, and in the U.S., protests on college campuses hit a crisis point as police were […]
April 2024 market update
Among the more interesting bits of Jerome Powell’s testimony to Congress last year was his admission that he’s been a Grateful Dead fan for 50 years. In his comments at the press conference at the March FOMC meeting, he affirmed that we will see rate cuts this year, even if the timing is, as of […]
March 2024 Market Update
Depending on your focus, the story the recent economic data is telling may be different. But one point of view has been remarkably consistent this year: the market does not seem to care about any of it. February saw the S&P 500’s first break through the 5,000 ceiling, and there were eight new closing highs […]
February 2024 market update
As goes January, so goes the year. That old stock market canard has a double-edged meaning this year, as the stock market as measured by the S&P came in strongly positive. But the path to getting there included dashed expectations for lower rates in March and a slew of data that would seem to indicate […]
How Wall Street beat a recession: Quorum featured in The Hill
While it’s debatable just how much politics affect the stock market and economy, politicians care quite a bit about what happens with both. As we head into an election year, it makes sense that The Hill—a Washington, D.C. based publication that focuses on politics and policy—recently looked at How Wall Street Powered Through Recession Fears. […]
January 2024 market update
The drama around the timing of the Federal Reserve’s first cuts to the key short-term interest rate continued in last few weeks of the old year and into the first week of the new year. Two months of slowing labor market data, coupled with a change to the wording in the December FOMC statement that […]
Will the stock market crash? Quorum shares risks with U.S. News
After 2023 left investors scratching their heads, U.S. News is asking whether the much discussed, yet elusive, recession and bear market are waiting for us in 2024. The publication shares a word of caution from Quorum Managing Partner Kelly Milligan at the beginning of the article: “At the end of 2022, nearly every expert at […]
