Last Week: In our May 18 Kuby’s Commentary (Happy Birthday Brooke Kuby) we noted the extraordinarily difficult year small cap stocks were having, posting more than double the S&P 500’s decline. In an attempt to “accentuate the positive”, we suggested that “when the gloom lifts, look for a nice rebound by this historically outperforming asset class”. The gloom vaporized Monday morning after biotech company Moderna reported that a phase one study [...]
Last Week: Every Saturday morning I settle in with my cup of coffee and read the New York Times and Barron’s. This past weekend each had a headline that when put together clearly painted the picture of the surreal state of the world. The NYT business section digest headline reads “Gloomy Week as Investors Assess Economy”. The parade of bad news continued as expected, with industrial production plunging 11.2%, manufacturing output [...]
Last Week: Reopening fervor overwhelmed COVID-19 fever as the S&P 500 surged 3.5% and the Russell 2000 jumped 5.5%! Following that rally the S&P 500 is now higher than it was a year ago: It is also almost 40% higher than it was five years ago, which seems like a very reasonable annual rate of return: It is worth noting the market was at an all-time record high at the starting [...]
NORTH STAR ANNOUNCES NEW ADDITIONS TO TEAM We are excited to announce two new members to North Star. Eric Papenhagen and Harry Petruleas each have over 20 years of serving the financial needs of families. They will be joining the North Star Family Office, which provides a wide range of services, including: • Asset Allocation & Investment Oversight • Retirement, Tax and Insurance Planning • Cash Flow Analysis, Budgeting and Bill [...]
Last Week: My standard opening: “Hang in there! As expected, more evidence of the economic fallout, combined with a continued ramp up in global coronavirus cases, has resulted in a 24/7 stream of disturbing headlines.” In the first quarter, which only included a few weeks of some states issuing stay- at -home orders, GDP contracted 4.8% and Personal Consumption dropped 7.6%. The Chicago PMI for April fell to 35.4 from 47.8 [...]