Equity markets remained on solid footing as the first half of the year came to a close. After a\nstrong first quarter, markets turned jittery in May, but came back solidly in June. Last month\u2019s rebound\nwas and continues to be driven by the hope of two events: The Federal Reserve lowering interest rates,\nand the U.S. and China reaching an agreement on a new trade deal.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At June\u2019s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the Fed left rates on hold, but sent\na clear message that the next move would be a cut. Chairman Powell stated that the Fed remains ready\nto \u201cact as appropriate to support the economic expansion\u201d, but was otherwise noncommittal on the\ntiming or the size of any future interest rate reductions. He further suggested that consensus is building\ntowards a cut (which has been the case for other economies around the globe), but the move will be\ndata dependent. After 2 1\u20442 years of steady rate increases, the likelihood of lower rates is a positive and\nis being welcomed by the markets.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trade negotiations with China continue to be ongoing and recently have taken a more positive\ntone. Other than garnering more than its fair share of headlines, the tit-for-tat trade talks, or \u201cwar\u201d as\nit is often referred to, has done very little to suppress the U.S. market which stands at or near its all-\ntime high. At the recent G-20 summit in Osaka, negotiations resumed in a positive manner with the\nU.S. delaying indefinitely any additional tariffs, and China pledging to buy more agriculture products\nfrom the U.S. Though the markets are betting on a positive U.S. outcome, much more work remains to\nbe done before this issue is put to bed.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In summary, as trade talks have taken on a more positive tone and, more importantly, as the\nFed is showing a willingness to lower interest rates, the U.S. economy is on track to continue its\nexpansion. With the latest run-up, U.S. equities are trading within a \u201cfairly-valued\u201d range. Balance\nsheets are strong, dividends are increasing, inflation remains low, and corporate profits are at all-time\nhighs.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am writing this on July 1st, but it likely will be after the 4th when you receive this. I hope you had a very\nenjoyable holiday.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you, and as always, my team and I are available for you any time.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Best Regards,\nClay Parker\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Equity markets remained on solid footing as the first half of the year came to a close. After a strong first quarter, markets turned jittery in May, but came back solidly in June. Last month\u2019s rebound was and continues to be driven by the hope of two events: The Federal Reserve lowering interest rates, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1117,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-market-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1118,"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions\/1118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/enteravalon.com\/southport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}