Midterm Mania

Midterm Mania

by | Jan 23, 2026 | Chart of the Week

  This week’s chart looks at how the Dow Jones Industrial Average has typically behaved during midterm election years. There have been 31 midterm elections since 1902. Each blue bar on the chart represents the annual return for that midterm year, while the orange...
The Discount Rate

The Discount Rate

by | Jan 22, 2026 | Indicator Insights

  Interest rates are important for the stock market. In a technical sense, they’re what we call the “discount rate.” This is the rate at which the future cash flows generated by the companies in the stock market get discounted back to the present. Because of how...
Long-Term Cycles

Long-Term Cycles

by | Jan 20, 2026 | 4 Your Money

When investors evaluate long-term stock market returns, it is helpful to look through the lens of rolling 20-year periods. Nate Kreinbrink shares the history of S&P 500’s returns and where the index stands now.

Deep Bench

Deep Bench

by | Jan 19, 2026 | Weekly Market Thoughts

OVERVIEW   Markets pulled back modestly during the week, with mixed results across major asset classes. Large-cap U.S. equities were under mild pressure, as the S&P 500 declined 0.38% and the NASDAQ fell 0.66%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.29%,...
Confident Credit

Confident Credit

by | Jan 16, 2026 | Chart of the Week

  How do we know when investors are gearing up to embrace risk? We look at credit spreads, the featured metric in this week’s chart shown above. What are credit spreads? Simply put, they are the extra interest investors earn for lending money to companies instead...