By Tom Burnett, CFA On January 10, 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its monthly employment data report for December 2019. Job growth came in at 145,000 and totals for October and November were revised down by a total of 14,000. After these revisions, job increases averaged 184,000 for the…
By Tom Burnett, CFA On January 8, 2020, the World Bank issued its latest report on global GDP growth estimates. The latest report updates the estimates from the Bank’s June 2019 report. The January report lowers global GDP growth estimates for 2019, 2020, and 2021 from the earlier June estimates. In…
By Tom Burnett, CFA The 2019 year of stock market performance has left us with a definitive answer to the question of which style, growth or value, has performed best in the last decade. We have used the Vanguard Value ETF (VTV) and the Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG) to conduct our analysis. We have also…
As we look at the earnings for S/P 500 companies, the slow growth of 1.0% for 2019 appears to be improving in 2020 (FACTESET December 20, 2019). The Index earnings are now expected to grow to 178.21 in 2020, up from 162.78 in 2019. This 9.4% growth forecast is well above the slow growth achieved...
On December 11, 2019, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee issued its December statement which left short-term interest rates unchanged. The current rate for federal funds is a range of 1.5% to 1.75%. The formal press release suggests that the Fed is likely to leave rates unchanged over the next…