Incredibly, 2021 is halfway over! There’s a long way to go, but it has been a great year for stock bulls, a historically bad year for bonds, and a great year for the economy. We recently found these four charts that we think all investors need to see as we head into July.

As we turn the page on June, it is important to remember that the third quarter historically is the worst quarter of the year. The good news though is the weak performance opens the door to the historically very strong fourth quarter.

Now here’s the catch about the third quarter, July is usually strong. It is August and Sep

While most of the focus lately has been on the volatility in the Treasury markets, the corporate credit markets continue to tell an encouraging story about the economic recovery. The traditional U.S. corporate credit bond market represents roughly $8.5 trillion in debt outstanding from both investment grade and non-investment grade issuers. Companies, large and small, access the credit markets to help fund operations and improve their financial health. Last year, these companies issued more than $2.3 trillion in debt, which was one of the strongest issuance years ever. The robustness of the corporate credit markets is a positive sign for both

Markets are off to a strong start this year, with the S&P 500 Index up about 14% so far. However, most of those gains came early in the year, and many stocks have stagnated over recent months. While we remain overweight on stocks relative to bonds, this week we explore three things that worry us—and could make the market more susceptible to a pullback as we enter the second half of 2021.

Year Two Tends to Be Choppy

The good news is the second year of every single bull market since World War II has seen the S&P 500 climb higher. That is 12 for 12 for year two gains. The second year for this bull market started

Inflation has been on the rise. Investors are not as interested in what’s happening now as they are in what’s happening next. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve (Fed) shared its views at the conclusion of its last policy meeting on Wednesday, June 16. And while the Fed’s position that inflation is likely to be transitory has become stronger, not weaker, Fed members have seemingly different opinions on the future path of monetary support.

Inflation has been on the rise. Everyone knows it and feels the impact with every purchase. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) spiked to 5.0% year over year in May, the most since 2008,