With the days growing shorter and the third quarter coming to a close, investors are turning their attention to the opportunities and risks that could shape markets through December. But volatility isn’t likely to dissipate as the year ends. Many of the concerns that have weighed on investors’ minds will continue to do so. But fundamentals also remain strong, and they have helped markets climb the wall of worry throughout the last two years

As we head into the fourth quarter, some of the major issues that will garner attention are the mid-term elections, interest rates and the Federal Reserve (Fed), and third quarter

On September 9, leading up to the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) much-anticipated rate hike, we wrote about how stocks historically performed after the start of rate-hiking cycles. In short, stocks tended to struggle over the first four months following the policy change before recovering and advancing by the time one year had passed (based on the last six hiking cycles dating back to 1994, with the bear market of 2022 a glaring exception). In today’s market article, we take that analysis a level deeper and provide historical perspective on which equity sectors have done well or poorly early in these past cycles to help investors identif

Stocks continue to climb a wall of worry, a wall that has gotten a bit taller as fall begins. The conflict in the Middle East, higher interest rates, and questions surrounding the enormous artificial intelligence (AI) capital spending boom all present legitimate risks for investors. While each of these challenges could generate bouts of volatility, we believe the fundamental backdrop remains supportive enough for stocks to weather them. Here, we assess the market’s growing wall of worry, explain why these worries warrant attention, and justify our continued constructive intermediate-to-long-term stock market outlook.

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The S&P 500 has remained remarkably resilient in the face of mounting macro headwinds. Despite oil prices topping $100 per barrel, 10-year Treasury yields climbing above 5%, and a renewed shift toward tighter monetary policy, the index continues to hover near record levels. Much of that resilience can be attributed to the resurgence of mega-cap stocks. After significant underperformance in the first quarter, the Magnificent Seven Index, comprised of Alphabet (GOOG/L), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), and Tesla (TSLA), has staged an impressive comeback, powering the index back to record-high territo