Leading Indicators Remain Stubbornly Tepid

Economic Blog Posted by lplresearch Friday, March 19, 2021 In almost every direction we turn, we see optimism mounting over a mid-2021 economic reacceleration. Unfortunately, it seems we will have to wait at least another month for that optimism to make their way into leading economic indicators in a major way. On Thursday, March 18, the […]

March 19, 2021

Corporate Credit Markets Have Sold Off This Year. A Harbinger of Things to Come?

Market Blog Posted by lplresearch Tuesday, March 23, 2023 While most market participants have been (rightly) focusing on the sell-off in the Treasury markets this year, U.S. corporate credit markets have sold off as well. Corporate credit markets, as defined by the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate index, are down over 5% for the year, which is […]

March 23, 2021

High Frequency Data: One Year After Lockdown

Economic Blog Posted by lplresearch Wednesday, March 24, 2021 It has now been a little over a year since the first COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns were implemented in the United States, with California having implemented the first stay-at-home order on March 19, 2020. LPL Research can now use high-frequency data to compare where we are now […]

March 24, 2021

The Big Winner of the Past Year: Commodities

Market Blog Posted by lplresearch Thursday, March 25, 2021 It has been just over a year since the S&P 500 Index bottomed on March 23, 2020, and while global stock markets have provided historic returns since the low, the biggest winners come from a completely different asset class: commodities. As global activity quickly ground to a […]

March 25, 2021

Why Big GDP Prints Aren’t Always Good For Stocks

Market Blog Posted by lplresearch Friday, March 26, 2021 Our friends at Goldman Sachs recently announced a 2021 growth target for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 8% (Q4/Q4). Should this happen, it would be the biggest annual increase in GDP since 1951. Of course, last year was the worst year for GDP since the Great Depression; […]

March 26, 2021

A Humble Victory Lap

Market Blog Posted by lplresearch Monday, March 29, 2021 It has been a little over a year since the S&P 500 Index bottomed on March 23, 2020, and it was certainly an eventful year, to say the least. It’s also been one year since we at LPL Research upgraded our view on equities from market weight […]

March 29, 2021

Bondholders’ Old Foe is Back

Market Blog Posted by lplresearch Tuesday, March 30, 2021 Inflation is coming and, according to certain market-based inflation metrics, markets are expecting sustained inflation rates not seen since the late 2000s, although likely still at manageable levels. Inflation, which captures price increases in consumer goods and services, is a primary risk for fixed-income investors. For fixed-income […]

March 30, 2021

Stocks Love April

Market Blog Posted by lplresearch Wednesday, March 31, 2021 “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Mark Twain What more can we say other than few months have been kinder to stocks lately than the month of April. In fact, it was last year that saw the S&P 500 Index gain an incredible 12.7%, for […]

March 31, 2021

Stocks and Inflation

Market Blog Posted by lplresearch Wednesday, March 31, 2021 As we continue LPL Research’s Inflation Week, today we will examine how stocks have historically done at different inflation levels. For more color on our views on inflation, please read here and here, and look out for tomorrow’s blog, where we’ll examine some of the factors that have kept inflation […]

Revisiting Our Treasury Yield Forecast

Market Blog Posted by lplresearch Tuesday, April 6, 2021 Coming into this year, we expected longer-maturity U.S. Treasury yields to rise, consistent with improving economic growth dynamics. That is indeed what we have seen, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury higher by 80 basis points (0.8%) year-to-date, and over 120 basis points (1.2%) since last […]

April 6, 2021