The last time we all sat down to carve the Thanksgiving turkey, financial markets had just experienced one of their worst periods in history. A look back gives us many things to be thankful for. Last November, mammoth banks were failing, stock and bond market losses were accelerating, and we were just two weeks away from discovering the massive fraud committed by Bernard Madoff. For all intents and purposes, it looked like the sky was falling. (more…)

The market rally continued last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading at new yearly highs as I write today. The broader S&P 500 is trading at highs for 2009, and the NASDAQ—up over 37% this year—is also trading at new highs for the year. Indeed, the rally is in force. (more…)

The official unemployment rate has finally reached into double digits. This was confirmed with last week’s release of the October jobs report. The official reading is unemployment of 10.2%, the highest since 1983. The market greeted this dire metric by rallying. (more…)

The Halloween week left investors a bit spooked, as volatility rose and stocks declined. The declines were led by the riskier and more cyclical issues, but the overall decline was broad in scope and deep in scale. Large and small, domestic and foreign, growth and value, emerging and developed all saw selling as we closed out the week and the month. (more…)