Stock Indices

Almost all assets see fluctuations in value over time but, while price swings are a common phenomenon in most asset classes that exist, they are the most famous in the stock market.Today’s infographic comes to us from Fisher Investments, and it serves as an introduction to the concept of volatility, along with offering a perspective on volatility’s impact on investments.

Both the S&P 500 and Wilshire 5000 are designed to track the largest publicly-traded U.S. stocks. In both cases, they are viewed as proxies for the U.S. stock market and to a lesser extent the U.S. economy but there are certain differences between the two.

Due to the massive debt and leverage in the system, I believe the economic and financial markets today are setting up for one heck of a fall with major fireworks coming in Q3-Q4 2018.

Bank of America's proprietary "Global Wave" indicator [see below] has just peaked for only the tenth time in 25 years and both the economy and markets are now set to stagnate for the next year, or worse, if more adverse developments emerge. Which scenario the markets will follow will depend on how the U.S.-China (and global) trade war develops; in other words, the fate of the stock market is now in Donald Trump's hands.

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross just said "There will be some hiccups along the way." Hiccups?... That's not very bullish. We need to take heed.

During the longest bull market in modern history, the S&P 500 surged a whopping 418% over the 9.5 years between November 1990 and March 2000 but, in mere months, this famed bull market may lose its title as the “longest” in the modern era because, according to data and analysis from LDL Research, the current bull market will take over the claim to fame in late August 2018. In today’s chart, we show every bull market since WWII, including the top six which are covered in more detail.

How much would an investment in the S&P 500 be worth today, with dividends reinvested but adjusted for inflation, had you invested that money 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 years ago? The following charts illustrate the annualized real rates of return over those periods of time.

Here's an updated outlook for the U.S. stock market based on the recent performance of both the DJ Industrial and DJ Transportation (Dow Theory) which, combined with our intermarket analysis, is pointing towards a risk-on period for the U.S. stock market.

You can predict the future of the stock market by predicting the future of the economy (fundamentals) and the economy shows no signs of significant deterioration right now

Wall Street hasn’t been this scary since the depths of the global financial panic in 2009 so is this the end of the bull market? Only 18% of money managers surveyed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch believe that stocks have peaked. That being said, the market is historically frothy after a near-record nine-year bull run and, if history teaches us anything, it’s that the key to success in investing is a willingness to go against the grain. Here are the warnings of five well-known strategists about impending market doom that shouldn’t go unheeded.