Finishing the third quarter, we can all look back and remember it has been ten years since the financial crisis and the beginning of the Great Recession.
I’d like to introduce our newest addition to our fixed income team, John Trentacoste, who has written the Bond Market Overview this quarter.
In case you were able to forget, the second quarter reminded us that we are no strangers to volatility in the markets. We’ve seen the main indexes whipsaw intraweek and even intraday over the last three months, with the S&P 500 Index ultimately finishing the second quarter up 3.43% and up 2.65% year to date, making up for the first quarter’s losses. Headlines surrounding geopolitical turmoil, political agendas, central bank policy, international trade disruptions, and corporate developments, scandals, and acquisitions have driven the markets on an almost daily basis. All the while, fundamentals have remained strong and corporate earnings have continued to offer credence to a highly valued stock market, despite nervousness about the inevitable and unpredictable return of the bear.
By now, everyone should be reacquainted with the term volatility. For the first month of the quarter, it seemed as though the trajectory of interest rates was up, up, up in almost a straight line.
