Commentary

Each month, the BCWM Portfolio Management team publishes an Investment Commentary that examines the latest developments in financial markets and the economy. We filter out the noise and present the information most relevant to our investment strategies and management of our clients’ portfolios.

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Negative Interest Rates are Not a Positive

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The first quarter of 2016 appeared to be a non-event in the stock market. The S&P 500 gained a little over 1%. Foreign stocks declined just a smidge. No big deal, right? Unless you were backpacking in the Himalayas with no internet access, you know that the first quarter was anything but a non-event. January…
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Gold and a Not So Golden Presidential Campaign

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Gold has been on a tear lately. It is exciting for all those “investors” (I use that term loosely) who perpetually think the investment world is ending to see the price of gold cease its relentless descent. Gold has frustrated doomsday investors. After peaking in 2010 at almost $1,900 an ounce, its price plummeted more…
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Blame China

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January stunk it up. The first two weeks of January really reeked. January stunk it up so badly that it made 2015 smell good. And February is starting out like it wants to make January smell good. After the first two weeks of January, U.S. markets were down about 8%. Foreign markets were slightly worse.…
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WORST START EVER!

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No, I’m not talking about the Philadelphia 76’ers or the Titanic. I’m talking about the stock market in 2016. In the first week of trading this year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 6.2%. Foreign stocks (the MSCI All World Index ex-US) declined 5.8%. According to pundits on CNBC that is the worst 5-day start…
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Don’t Be in a Hurry to Get That Mortgage

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The Fed raised interest rates last week – a big whopping ¼ of 1% – the first increase in almost a decade. We’ve known this was coming for months… actually thought it might have occurred in September, so the increase in December was not a surprise. The only surprise would have been if they HADN’T…
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