BY KENT SHAW, Portfolio Manager Volatility in the stock market and the often associated news stories that sound increasingly gloomy can be unnerving. Our aim is to reduce our clients’ need to consume such information so they can be freed … Read More

CHRIS GUINTHER, Senior Equity Strategist and Portfolio Manager It’s 2022, not 2020, and my opinion is the odds that stocks will do well have fallen significantly.  After two really strong economic years during the Covid period, the Federal Reserve has … Read More

BY BRENDAN WAGNER, Portfolio Manager A day after Walmart’s weak earnings, Target’s results sent a shudder through the markets Wednesday 5/18, with the S&P500 off 4% and flirting with a bear market.  Inflation headwinds have been discussed for months, but … Read More

A little over a month ago, Russia invaded Ukraine; surely stocks are down and bonds are up since then, right?  Not quite.   The information provided is for illustration purposes only.  It is not, and should not be regarded as … Read More

BY BRENDAN WAGNER, Portfolio Manager The Russia-Ukraine situation is of course top of mind for humanitarian reasons, but in this note we also explore other reasons for market moves in the first two+ months of 2022. Market expectations of aggressive … Read More

EDTIOR’S NOTE: MONTAG has followed the troubling events in Europe of recent weeks with concern. As an investment firm, it is MONTAG’s responsibility to focus on securities markets, prices, changes in valuation, and other factors during uncertain times. However, that’s … Read More

By HELEN DONAHUE, CFA Much has been made of the labor shortage in the pandemic era. Many economists predicted that unemployment would decrease with the expiration of the extended unemployment benefits. While claims have dropped, it has not been to … Read More

BY RANDY LOVING, CFA The 18th of October was a big day for semiconductor chips and computing.  Apple (NASDAQ:  AAPL) released its new Mac computer line up that will be based on a chip design licensed from Arm Holdings.  This … Read More

In another of our “A Minute With MONTAG” series, we look at the phenomenon of negative real interest rates – not seen since the 1970’s – and what this might say about investors’ inflation expectations:     A real interest … Read More

By Tom Frisbie, Guest Contributor As President Biden shepherds political support for an unprecedented level of government spending on a variety of programs described as “infrastructure” (roughly $4 trillion at the moment), many members of Congress are understandably concerned. National … Read More