While most market participants have been (rightly) focusing on the sell-off in the Treasury markets this year, U.S. corporate credit markets have sold off as well. Corporate credit markets, as defined by the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate index, are down over 5% for the year, which is on pace for the second worst start of a year since 1980. While the negative price performance has been meaningful this year, we don’t think it is a harbinger of things to come.

To take advantage of low interest rates, shore up balance sheets and extend maturities, corporate CFOs issued a record amount of debt last year. By doing so though,

The bear market ended one year ago this week, finishing one of the fastest and most vicious bear markets of all-time—one that led to a drawdown of 34%. Things have come full circle now, as stocks have staged a furious rally, with new highs happening across the globe as the economy recovers at a record pace.  We take a look back at what happened last March, while also examining how previous bull markets did during the second year of their existence.

A Look Back

Although we aren’t sure we want to, let’s take a look back at the bear market and try to put in perspective just how historic and devastating i

With the NCAA college basketball tournament getting underway this week, LPL Research is getting in the spirit with its own version of March Madness. Here we share our “Final Four Factors” for the stock market in 2021: Vaccines, Policy, Profits, and Rates. While we see several strong competitors in this field, we believe the likely winner of this tournament is clear, and it will push stocks higher over the balance of the year.

Factor #1: Vaccines

Perhaps the most important factor in assessing economic growth prospects

The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is bringing us closer to a ful

Fourth-quarter earnings season is in the home stretch, and it’s been a good one. After raising our 2021 earnings forecast for the S&P 500 Index in our Weekly Market Commentary on February 8, our upgraded forecast may now be too low, based on what we have learned from corporate America during the three weeks since. In this commentary, we recap earnings season and share our latest thoughts on just how strong the earnings rebound could be in 2021 and beyond.

Outstanding Numbers in the Fourth Quarter

Coming into fourth-quarter earnings season, investors had plenty of reasons to expect that companies would deliver bett