Monday’s strong manufacturing report caught our attention, even as the coronavirus outbreak dominated the financial media. At 50.9, the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for Janua

After a three-and-a-half-month, largely uninterrupted rally in stocks, the period of calm ended last week as the coronavirus outbreak led to a bout of volatility. Though it is difficult to predict when the virus will be contained and how many more li

The Super Bowl Indicator suggests stocks rise for the full year when the Super Bowl winner has come from the original National Football League (now the NFC), but when an original American Football League (now the AFC) team has won, stocks have fallen

Fears that the deadly coronavirus would spread further around the globe intensified Monday and led to the biggest one-day drop in the S&P 500 Index since October 8, 2019. In fact, it was the first time the index moved 1% in either direction since

U.S. stocks have staged an impressive rally over the past few months. While we like seeing stocks rise, we’re starting to see signs of overbought conditions and stretched sentiment in market indicators we watch. We still believe in long-term fu

Stock markets around the world have hit new record highs this year, but U.S. small cap stocks have yet to join the party.

As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, the S&P 500 Index has outpaced the Russell 2000 Index, its small cap coun

Last week in our LPL Research blog, we took a closer look at how stocks have performed during an election year. We found that since 1940, the S&P 500 Index hasn’t been lower during an election year when an incumbent president has been up fo

Earnings growth was largely absent in 2019, but we expect it to pick up in 2020. With stock valuations elevated, we think earnings hold the key to pushing stocks higher this year. We preview fourth quarter earnings season and share our thoughts on th

2020 is off to a roaring start, picking up right where 2019 left off. Many investors are eyeing the upcoming presidential election as an impending storm for the stock market. In the four-year presidential cycle, pre-election years have tended to be t

Fourth quarter earnings season kicked off this week with 24 S&P 500 Index companies slated to report results. Our expectations are for a marginal increase in S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS) on a year-over-year basis, based on current FactSet