Can corporate profits reignite after a rocky 2024? This earnings season could either fuel the market’s fire or leave it gasping for air.
It looks like investors have been adding shares of Amazon.com to their carts in recent weeks.
Semiconductor stocks remain the leaders of this market, but investors might admit it looks pretty extended at the moment.
Many different factors drive commodity cycles. Decarbonization, deglobalization, and demographics are inflationary drivers that weren’t present just a few years back and which put commodities in an interesting position.
Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla have captured the imagination of the markets. These magnificent seven companies currently have a market cap north of $12 trillion. But what are the dangers of overconcentration? How do you make sense of the ballooning valuations and FOMO-driven attraction to these stocks. As AI prepares to supercharge the tech space, investors who make savvy decisions will attempt to end up on top. Join the experts at Direxion on March 28th at 2pm ET for a free webcast exploring the opportunities and risks in the magnificent seven.
We have recently been reminded how important it is to incorporate defensive strategies into our clients’ portfolios to help weather the storm of turbulent markets. After an extended bull market of over 10 years, we see again that significant market corrections can be triggered by various factors ─ and we often don’t see them coming. For this reason, we must attempt to always be prepared. Certain asset classes, by their nature, will react more sharply during highly volatile times, while others can provide a way to stay in the markets with a more defensive stance.
Please join Direxion for this informative webcast to learn about various strategies that strive to offer stability to your portfolio. Session topics will include:
Additionally, we will hear from Astoria Portfolio Advisors’ John Davi regarding their economic outlook and market perspective for these historic times.
A flattening yield curve, trade tensions, and geopolitical turmoil have affected all asset classes, and have investors looking for fresh ideas in an aging bull market. Can capital efficient ETFs provide a way for investors to take advantage of emerging portfolio construction opportunities in the intermediate term?
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
Robert Huebscher, sits down with David Mazza, Managing Director, and Inkoo Kang, V.P. of Product and Institutional Strategy, to explore:
Amid the hand wringing over whether the U.S. and China are coming closer together or further apart on a trade deal, a dark horse has emerged in sector investing that seems immune to the cyclic boom and bust of this headline-driven market.
After bottoming in December 2018, the ratio of U.S. stocks to international stocks is re-approaching the all-time highs that they hit in November thanks to strong performance from the Russell 1000®. As illustrated below, this ratio remains considerably above its historical average. In fact, its north of two positive standard deviations of the average.
Specifically, U.S. shares have outperformed international shares by 3.11% year-to-date, 10.26% over the last 1 year, 4.91% annualized over the last 3 years and 7.07% annualized over the last 5 years. With increased long exposure to the U.S. and risk-controlled short exposure to international markets, the Russell 1000®/FTSE All-World ex US 150/50 Net Spread Index is up 13.77% on the year.
In one of its biggest six-month moves since 2016, the price of gold has rebounded about 10 percent from a 52-week low it set back in August 2018. But the precious metal once again found itself hitting resistance in the $1350-$1360 per ounce range. It’s now been about five and a half years since gold topped out at $1,400.
While defensive sectors continue to lead cyclicals by 3.23% over the last six months, cyclicals have bounced back over the last three, outperforming defensives by 5.43%, helping bring twelve-month performance firmly in the lead for cyclicals. The market leadership via cyclical sectors highlights the fact that market participants continue to favor firms with higher betas and greater economic sensitivity than the market thanks to reduced concerns about rising rates and optimism regarding China-U.S. trade relations.
