5.11.2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Gasoline prices spiked 9 cents/gallon over the weekend. The move was not prompted by a sudden increase in driving demand nor a spurt in economic activity, but rather because of a cyberattack waged on Colonial Pipeline, one of the nation’s largest pipeline networks for refined petroleum products.
5.6/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Active management, which has been under pressure for decades, is now facing a potential new headwind: higher tax rates. Actively managed mutual funds have struggled to keep pace with the market averages over most time periods when fees are taken into consideration.
4/28/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Tax rates will soon be on the rise. We heard about it on the campaign trail, and so it should not come as a surprise that we are hearing about it again now. President Biden will unveil his “American Families Plan” Wednesday evening in his first speech to a joint session of Congress. The $1.5 trillion “human infrastructure” program…
4/20/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Blockchain, the distributed ledger that boasts immutable accounting, is gaining trust among its users. Hosted by a decentralized network of computers worldwide, any of the ledger’s millions of users can instantly verify transactions or affirm the authenticity of ownership of digital assets, whether they are cryptocurrency or digital art.
4/7/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
The US economy feels like an ash-emitting volcano ready to erupt. A favorable combination of pandemic fatigue, COVID-19 vaccinations (currently covering more than 30 per cent of the US population), nearly $2 trillion of spending cash on the sidelines and a snowstorm of government checks…
3/30/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Thanks to a rush of vaccines, COVID-19 infection rates are plunging. Confirmed cases in the US are running at an average daily rate of about 53,000, half the rate of last month. Talk of reopening is welcome news to a nation of lockdown-weary consumers, many of whom are sitting on a stockpile of savings.
3/24/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
The Biden administration has passed a massive $1.9 trillion stimulus program designed to get checks into the hands of low-income Americans. This program represents the liberal policy shift in politics and economics that gained traction during the coronavirus pandemic.
When is the right time to begin planning to sell your business? It’s sooner than you think.
Too many CEO Founders begin planning too late, or not at all. Consider this: an estimated 75 percent of business owners do little or no planning for possibly the most important transaction of their careers.
David Karp, Founding Partner and Senior Managing Director at Cresset Asset Management, LLC has been named to Barron’s 2021 list of America’s Top 1,200 Financial Advisors, ranking #8 for the state of Virginia.
3/18/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
The volatile blend of pent-up demand, a stockpile of household cash and government stimulus checks is expected to erupt into a price spike later this year as the US economy emerges from its year-long lockdown.
3/10/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Investors often have unique, sometimes even peculiar, ways of interpreting news. These days, it seems, good economic news is being translated into bad market news thanks to rising interest rates. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield has spiked in recent months as investors see a brightening light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel.
3/3/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
The COVID-19 pandemic not only turned our world upside down, but it helped to accelerate trends that were already in motion long before we knew what COVID meant.
As a CEO Founder, you’ve been working every day growing your business and may find that your business has overtaken your life. Who do you rely on to help you navigate and streamline your affairs before and after your liquidity event?
In this era of increased automation and democratization of information, there are options to satisfy most everyone’s level of risk, fee tolerance and those with a willingness to do their homework.
2/23/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Special Purpose Acquisition Vehicles (SPACs), lately have become a popular way for private companies to go public. Also known as “blank-check” companies, SPACs enable sponsors to raise capital through an IPO for an undisclosed and often unknown acquisition.
2/16/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Frigid temperatures are gripping the nation, fueling rallies in the energy complex. Brent crude rose 1.4 per cent to $63.30/bbl, a pre-pandemic level. Natural gas, a main source of home heating, jumped more than 4 per cent…
2/9/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
President Biden and congressional Democrats, citing economic urgency, are poised to move forward with a $1.9 trillion relief plan, opting not to compromise with Republican negotiators.
2/4/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Motivated by profit and the opportunity to inflict financial pain on mega-wealthy hedge fund managers, retail traders – armed with a few thousand dollars in their Robinhood accounts – ganged up to drive the prices of heavily shorted companies like GameStop…
1/29/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
Equity markets have staged a dramatic rebound from the depths of the pandemic-induced selloff last March, fueled by an aggressive central bank and the prospect of fiscal relief. From its low hit last March, the S&P 500 surged more than 70 per cent through the end of the year.
1/20/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
We believe one of the best ways to assess current market conditions is through Cresset’s Five Macro Factors: valuation, economic backdrop, liquidity, psychology and momentum. These gauges offer a useful perspective on the current market environment and the outlook for the next 12-18 months.
1/13/2021: Market Update by Jack Ablin, Chief Investment Officer at Cresset
After bottoming out last August at an historical low of 0.5 per cent, the 10-year Treasury yield inched higher, closing the year at a post-pandemic high of 0.91 per cent. The results of last week’s Georgia election, which gave Democrats control of Congress, pushed the benchmark rate above 1 per cent for the first time since March.
