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Investment Insights

Lessons from the Bull Market of 2020

As the results of the US election come into sharper relief, investors are scrambling to gauge the impact on the future direction of equity markets. To provide some insight, it may be instructive to review the drivers of the chaotic market performance so far in 2020 and consider their applicability to 2021 and beyond. A […]

November 10, 2020

Third Quarter 2020 Market Review: Investors Brace for Uncertain Future

Market Recap Despite a September pullback that at one point had US stocks nearing a 10% decline, equity investors continued to benefit during the quarter from the better-than-expected recovery in the US economy since the spring lockdown. The Russell 3000 Index of US stocks posted a 9.2% gain the third quarter, recovering all the losses […]

October 7, 2020

Amazon and Apple Are Not the Stock Market

Readers of the financial press may be familiar with the oft-quoted line, “the stock market is not the economy”. The statement is meant to address the apparent contradiction between the performance of the stock market (up) and direction of the economy (down). Since mid-March, the S&P 500 has rallied more than 60 percent while US […]

September 4, 2020

2nd Quarter Market Update: Mirror Image

Market Update A sense of dread confronted investors near the end of March, as the extent of the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic came into sharper relief. The S&P 500 fell approximately 34 percent from its high in mid-February to its nadir on March 23. As the Federal Reserve and the US government […]

July 7, 2020

Emerging Markets Update with Anindya Chatterjee, Portfolio Manager of the Fiera Capital Emerging Markets Fund

On May 20 our Director of Research, Bruce Simon, interviewed Anindya Chatterjee, Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager of Emerging Markets at Fiera Capital. Ballentine has a significant investment in Anindya’s strategy, and given the current turmoil in global equity markets, we thought it would be a good time to have Anindya address some of […]

June 2, 2020

The Confusing Link between Stocks and the Economy

Despite a brief interruption for a few days last week, the US stock market as measured by the S&P 500 continued the seemingly inexorable climb higher that it began in late March. In the face of Depression era-like economic conditions, the S&P 500 is only about 16 percent below its all-time high set on February […]

May 20, 2020

When the Bill Comes Due

US stocks are rebounding sharply from the steep losses incurred in the early days of the pandemic. After a brutal 34 percent decline in the S&P 500 in the span of about a month, stocks have staged an impressive rally that has left the S&P 500 only about 9% below its all-time high set on […]

May 1, 2020

Surviving the Next Downturn: A Reprise

In January 2018, Ballentine Partners published “Surviving the Next Downturn: A Mental Primer”. The article predicted the inevitability (but not the timing) of the next severe market decline and documented the history of past market selloffs and subsequent recoveries. It also offered some guidance for investors who find the roller-coaster of short-term stock market volatility difficult […]

April 23, 2020

1st Quarter Market Report: Crisis Mentality

Market Update Building off the spectacular gains in 2019, equity prices continued their steady march higher in January and early February, confident that the modest but steady progress in the global economy would continue. Despite rumblings of a dangerous new virus spreading unchecked in one of the major industrial areas of China, investors seemed unconcerned […]

April 6, 2020

Looking Beyond the Valley

The past week has been historic in many ways. The US now has the most cases of Covid-19 among nations and registered the highest number of weekly jobless claims in US history. The US Senate passed the biggest stimulus in history after the Fed reacted in similarly historic measure. The pace of news has contributed to unprecedented […]

March 27, 2020

Gut Check for Long Term Investors

The uneasy alliance between OPEC and Russia to manage oil output and stabilize prices collapsed in dramatic fashion last Friday, as Russia shocked OPEC meeting attendees by announcing they would not participate in new production cuts. In response, Saudi Arabia announced a steep cut in oil prices and an increase in production. The price cuts […]

March 9, 2020

Coronavirus Update: Not Out of the Woods

Investors have apparently concluded that the coronavirus epidemic (now called COVID-19) will not do more than modest damage to the global economy. At the latest count, the virus had infected more than 75,000 people and killed more than 2,000. Confident that global growth will experience only a temporary slowdown, equity markets continue to trade around […]

February 19, 2020