Stock Market Valuation Levels Remain High

By Tom Burnett CFA The June 17, 2021 FACTSET report on earnings estimates for the S/P 500 Index companies reflects the growing analyst optimism about the corporate earnings picture. The consensus estimates for the second quarter are now 61% above the Q2 2020 earnings results that were badly damaged by…

By Tom Burnett CFA On June 16, 2021 the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee released its monthly statement on interest rate policies and economic projections. Importantly, the Fed did not change its goal of holding the fed funds rate to a range of 0 to 0.25%. In addition, the Fed disclosed that it…

By Tom Burnett CFA On June 15, 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its May report on Producer Price Index (“PPI”) movements. The Index rose 0.8% in May, after rising 0.6% in April and 1.0% in March. The Index advanced 6.6% for the 12 months ended in May, the largest increase since 12-month…

By Tom Burnett CFA On June 8, 2021, the World Bank released its updated global GDP growth forecast models from the January 2021 Report. The WB now expects world growth of 5.6% in 2021, an increase of 1.5% from the January Report. If achieved, this rate of global growth would be the fastest annual rate…

By Tom Burnett CFA According to data from the June 7, 2021 Wall Street Journal, the commodity sector has shown the most positive price performance of any of the asset classes in the more than 100 items followed by its database. Based on closing prices on June 4, 2021, the Bloomberg Commodity Index is…