A late month selloff in January saw the S&P 500 Index close marginally lower for the month. But stocks have taken off in February, with the S&P 500 up nearly 4% this month, as US economic data remains strong and fears over the worst-case scenarios for the coronavirus appear overblown.

Historically, February has been a month when stocks tend to take a bit of a break. As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, the S&P 500 has been flat, on average, during the second month of an election year. What is most interesting, though, is how weak October has been historically leading up to presidential elections, yet how strong stock

The financial media returned to a favorite topic in the last week, yield curve inversion, but we caution against getting caught up in the building frenzy.

The Treasury yield curve inverts when short-term interest rates move above long-term rates. As shown in the LPL Research Chart of the Day, the 3-month Treasury yield has sporadically moved higher than the 10-year over the last several weeks. Since the end of World War II, some type of inversion has preceded every recession, although often well in advance and shallow or brief inversions, such as we saw in 2019, can be a false signal.

“The yield c

Stocks in developed markets outside the United States have underperformed those in the United States almost without interruption for the last decade. While the long-lasting U.S. stock market dominance has us understandably cautious, we are warming up to international equities. We highlight four main reasons why international equities’ performance could be poised to improve.

Economic Backdrop

Economic growth in developed international economies continued to slow at the end of 2019 and remained tepid into 2020. Efforts to boost growth through fiscal policy and structural reforms saw little success. The benefits of aggres

U.S. stocks broke a two‐week losing streak with their best weekly gain in eight months. Good U.S. economic data, well‐received fourth‐quarter earnings results, news of a possible Coronavirus vaccine, and China tariff reductions helped lift sentiment and propel the S&P 500 to recover its losses from the previous two weeks. 

All four U.S. indexes we track gained between&n