Notes on the Week Ahead

In recent months, falling political uncertainty, two powerful rounds of fiscal stimulus and the rollout of covid-19 vaccines have resulted in a long-anticipated rotation in markets. Since early November, value stocks have outperformed growth, small caps have outperformed large and international stocks have outperformed their U.S. counterparts, with each of these moves reversing a multi-year trend....

The pandemic has had an unfortunate impact on my piano practice.  In truth, I have never been a promising student - my musical efforts have always rather resembled roadwork on an overused urban highway - that is to say, not so much an exercise in inventive construction as one in increasingly inadequate repair.  Still, for some years, my piano teacher would relieve the general ear strain by suggest...

As a hungry child, growing up in a large family, some forays into cooking were essential.  My early rice-making experiments, however, were exercises in frustration.  I would start with a large sloshing pot of icy water and, having transported it to the stove with wobbly hands, I’d dump in a bag of rice and wait for results. It seemed to take ages for the water to heat up, as I peered down hopefull...

The week ahead will be a busy one for market-moving events and economic data.  However, beyond the noise, investors will continue to mull two crucial questions: First, how far could interest rates rise and, second, what could that mean for equities?

Long-term interest rates have risen sharply in 2021 so far, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond climbing from 0.93% on January 4th to 1.34% by last Friday.  This move is a logical reaction to better news on the pandemic, encouraging data on how the economy has weathered an early-winter surge in covid cases, and rising prospects for significant fiscal stimulus.  However, given this positive...

In a year when everything has been different, it was comforting to watch an almost normal Super Bowl with Tom Brady, albeit wearing the wrong uniform, winning yet again.  It wasn’t that close a game – Tampa Bay established a lead in the first half and just did what they needed to do to hold that lead to the end. 

This Friday, February 12th, marks the start of the Chinese New Year and the Chinese people, like the rest of humanity, will say a hearty good riddance to the last year with hopes for easier times ahead.  The Year of the Ox should be better, with vaccines gradually allowing for a return to normal life and China should be able to build on its early economic recovery and resume its very long trend of...

In two weeks, in Daytona Beach, Florida, 40 cars will compete for the most coveted prize in NASCAR.  As the cars slowly circle the track in the pace laps before the green flag drops, the noise of engines revving will give notice to all of the speed to come.  In a similar fashion, while the U.S. economy has slowed to a crawl over the winter, there are growing reasons to expect a sharp acceleration...

In most decades, there are dramatic events that interrupt the course of history and the last twenty years have seen at least three obvious examples of this.  However, more often than not, it is the reaction, in public attitudes and policy, rather than the event itself, that shapes the path taken by society in its aftermath. The horror of 9/11 laid the groundwork for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. ...

Last Thursday, ahead of the inauguration, President-elect Biden outlined proposals which, if implemented, could have profound social and economic effects as well as impacts on the broad direction of fiscal and monetary policy.

At the start of a new week and a new year, investors have plenty to think about.  Despite the rollout of vaccines, the pandemic has worsened in recent weeks, dragging on the global economy.  U.S. stock markets ended at record highs on Friday and both bond and equity valuations look lofty.  And in the week ahead, the Congress will certify the election of Joe Biden as President, although with an unu...

In Newgrange, just north of the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland, there exists a giant burial tomb, constructed, it is estimated, around 3200 BC and measuring over an acre in area .  Little is known about the people who built it.  However, we can surmise that they had some knowledge of both astronomy and engineering since each year, only at dawn on this day, the Winter Solstice, a beam of sunl...

No parent can ever forget the day their child was born.  From that moment on, you’re completely responsible for another, entirely helpless, human being.  And so you do everything you can to love them, to nurture them, to teach them and to help them grow.  At the start, their problems are little ones and usually you can help them surmount them.  

A week ago, President-elect Biden hurt his foot while playing with Major, one of his rather rambunctious dogs.  Following a CT scan of his injury, it was determined that he had suffered a hairline fracture and his doctor suggested an orthopedic boot.  While it is, no doubt, an awkward piece of footwear, the course of treatment was not controversial.  If, however, his doctor had told him to just wa...

Following knee-jerk flight-to-safety bounce as the pandemic struck, the U.S. dollar has fallen in recent months and is now down over 6% year-to-date against the euro and over 4% year-to-date against the yen.  This is a small start on a welcome journey. While some politicians and editorial writers will always proclaim their pride in a “strong dollar”, the truth is that an over-valued currency has b...

Currently, a 7-day moving average of the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 exceeds 170,000 while a 7-day moving average of fatalities is above 1,500.  While most people are very worried about this, spotty compliance with mask-wearing and millions of families getting together over the holiday season could well boost these numbers in the days ahead. This will sadly lead to traumatic scenes in ho...

Of all the challenges facing investors in this blighted year, maintaining a long-term perspective may be the hardest.  In recent weeks, markets have swayed back and forth in reaction to case counts, vote counts, vaccine news and stimulus views, obscuring longer-term trends on economic growth, inflation, earnings and interest rates.  It has also been tempting to ignore the crucial importance of cur...

There was a time, long before GPS or the need to select the accent of the artificial being that would bark driving directions at you, when people consulted road maps. On trips abroad, my wife, Sari, who’s more gifted with fast reflexes than geography, would take the steering wheel while I would unfold an oversized map on my lap, crinkling and tearing at the seams. However, as we buzzed along the r...

A few years ago, just when I’d started training for a big race, I strained my Achilles tendon.  Being an Irishman, I couldn’t, of course, bring this evidence of age and infirmity to the attention of an actual physician.  However, I consulted the oracles of the internet and they were, for once, very consistent in their advice:  “Wait a few days until the pain has faded and then work steadily on ank...

It always requires discipline to look beyond the next few weeks and months and take a long-term view. In the short run, investors remain focused on election uncertainty and how the once-again worsening pandemic, combined with stalemate over further fiscal stimulus, threatens to dramatically slow the pace of economic recovery, following a strong third-quarter bounce.

Turbulence defines today’s investment environment, with great waves of uncertainty surging from the pandemic, the election, fiscal policy and a slowdown in what had been, to this point, a sharp recovery from a very deep recession. But amidst the tumult, investors should not neglect the crucial role of interest rates. The waves of uncertainty should fade in 2021 and, as they do so, the primary role...

For most Americans, November 3rd can’t come soon enough. U.S. presidential election campaigns are always hideously long and this one has felt particularly painful, with such a deep divide between the supporters of the rival candidates.  However, recently there has been increased speculation about the grim possibility of the election outcome being contested.  Quite apart from the further division t...

For most of the last 40 years, the United States, like most developed economies, has suffered from a lack of demand for goods and services. This has contributed to a steady slide in inflation. More importantly, it has indirectly triggered recessions by funneling money towards assets, feeding bubbles which have inevitably burst. A lack of aggregate demand has also slowed the recovery from those dow...

This week, I, like about 20,000 others, will attempt to complete the virtual Boston Marathon.  I had signed up again with the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge team to run it in April, after a rather ragged performance in 2019.  But then the race, like so much this year, first got postponed and then went virtual.  And so, next Saturday morning, I will nervously walk out my front door, turn left and j...

English, as spoken in Ireland, is full of colloquialisms, phrases which are plain and clear to the local population and entirely mysterious to visitors.  Of course, Irish people don’t realize this and, over the years, I’ve become used to the bemused smile of Americans who clearly hear what I say but, equally clearly, have no notion of what I mean.