The Discount Rate

The Discount Rate

  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

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

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

  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...
Peak Momentum

Peak Momentum

  Momentum can be an interesting thing to measure in markets. Due to the nature of how momentum is calculated (a rate of change), it often tends to fade before prices actually peak. Think of it like a homemade rocket. The speed at which it’s rising slows down...