The first five days of 2020 are in the books. Although the headlines have been quite scary, equities have picked up right where they left off last year. In fact, after the first five trading days of the new year, the S&SP 500 Index is up a respectable 0.65%.

Jeffrey Hirsch of The Stock Trader’s Almanac follows and tracks many interesting seasonal patterns. One that we find very interesting states that how stocks perform the first five trading days of a new year could indicate how the full year will go. Now, we’ll be the first to admit no one should invest based only on this adage, but the results have been quite c

It was a volatile night for the U.S.-Iran conflict.

S&P 500 Index futures dipped 1.5% and global markets swung after Iran shot several ballistic missiles at U.S.-Iraqi military bases. Markets recovered their losses overnight on news that there were no American casualties, but tensions remain high in the Middle East.

As concerns over the Iran conflict continue to build, we’ve received many questions asking what this could mean for the market outlook. We discussed our initial thoughts regarding the conflict in our January 6 blog, but we believe it is important for investors to remember that there have been ma

U.S. manufacturing health continued to slide, despite the United States and China moving closer to a limited trade agreement.

The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 47.2 in December 2019. As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, December’s reading was the lowest of the economic cycle, and its fifth straight month in contractionary territory (below 50).

Underlying details of the PMI report were also discouraging. ISM’s forward-looking gauge of new orders fell to a 10-year low, signaling weak demand may continue to weigh on m

The U.S. airstrike that killed the top Iranian military commander last week was a major escalation in Mideast tensions.

In fact, it would be difficult to overstate the geopolitical significance of this action. Iran likely will retaliate, possibly with attacks on American military personnel overseas.

We cannot dismiss the risk that the situation may escalate further into a broader conflict. However, from a markets perspective, we want to be careful not to overstate the potential impact. History shows that stocks have largely shrugged off past geopolitical conflicts. We looked at significant geopolitical events dating