Wealth Management Blog | WrapManager | WrapManager's Investment Policy Committee (14)

Eagle Asset Management Market Perspective - Patience

Posted by WrapManager's Investment Policy Committee

December 15, 2015

Eagle Asset Management's Richard Skeppstrom urges patience in this month's Market Perspective.

"When things don’t seem normal, we’re prone to action. Yes, we’ll wait around a bit expecting the familiar to return but we aren’t a patient species: somewhere between dogs and finches. The urge to do something overwhelms caution at some point. I believe we (the markets) are there. We’ve given up on the return of familiar. The genetic playbook is calling for action.

Morgan Stanley is feeling it: The company just fired 25 percent of its fixed-income folks. Conclusion: Fixed income is crippled forever or Christmas is the best season for job searches?
The epic merger boom: Zero organic growth is bad for my CEO pay or Goldman Sachs deserves more deal fees
The U.S. Federal Reserve’s profound dithering over 25 basis points: Evidence of a desire to do something or a Fed out of options?

New eBook! Guide to Researching Money Managers

December 2, 2015

Money managers and the underlying investments can act as the fuel for your investment plan, propelling you toward your retirement goals and the future you’ve planned for yourself. Therefore, it’s important to choose your money manager carefully. There are some general rules of thumb that will help you to find the right strategy mix to help make your goals a reality. Finding a money manager can be time-consuming, however, and there are many other things you would rather be doing. Fortunately, financial advisors can serve two functions: they can create and monitor your investment plan, and they can also research money managers for you. Our new eBook, Guide to Researching Money Managers, will discuss the following topics that can help you better understand steps you can take when researching money managers: What's the Difference Between a Money Manager and a Financial Advisor? In short, money managers manage and financial advisors advise. Financial advisors understand individuals’ financial situations and create unique investment plans while money managers spend their time managing portfolio strategies. This section will go into more detail about the differences. [+] Read More

Eagle Asset Management - Volatility Examined

November 23, 2015

Richard Skeppstrom, of Eagle Asset Management's Strategic Return Portfolio, analyzes recent market volatility in Eagle's November Market Perspective. "As the third quarter came to a close, equity markets were a stumble away from panic. Bankruptcy concerns were playing havoc in the commodity space while technicians nervously watched for a Dow sell signal. If the Dow had closed below the August trough of 15666: a blood bath. I wrote that I was comfortable with my equity allocation and would just wait and see, ignoble action possibly resembling chicken excrement. Of course, my reluctance to do anything was a reliable buy signal. Don Hayes, the longstanding strategist at fondly remembered Wheat First Securities, used to say the markets will do whatever they can to confound the most. The rebound this month certainly qualifies. Not only has the market staged a striking rebound, but also sector leadership completely reversed. Energy and commodities – hated a few weeks ago – have led while healthcare has lagged. [+] Read More

ClearBridge Advisors - Market Risk and Opportunity

November 10, 2015

ClearBridge Investments, a Legg Mason company, provides their Q3 commentary with discussion of the challenges and opportunities that exist within such a volatile market. "Market Commentary “Nothing any good isn’t hard.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald Memories of painful experiences are often a critical and adaptive part of living, in that painful memories can keep you out of harm’s way by minimizing repeat mistakes. The challenge, however, is that memories are highly subjective, and with the passage of time you often forget how intense something felt at the time. In the realm of physical pain, my biggest outlet for stress is training and competing in triathlons with my wife and several colleagues from ClearBridge. They are all better than me, which is painful enough, but I often don’t have enough time to fully prepare for the longer events. This inevitably leads me to swear off competing again, until I ultimately find myself standing in a cold body of water at the beginning of another grueling physical experience. In all seriousness, I love competing, and the rewards of doing so from a health and emotional perspective far outweigh short bouts of physical pain that are soon enough forgotten. [+] Read More

Cambiar Investors International ADR

November 9, 2015

While market concerns had investors scrambling for the exists, Cambiar Investors took advantage of the market weakness in Q3 to deploy capital into a number of new investments. Read their Q3 2015 commentary below. "Market Review After fairly muted performance for the first half of 2015, global equities sold off in the third quarter. In contrast to prior pullbacks that were often met with buyers stepping in to buy the dips, investor sentiment towards stocks deteriorated considerably in the quarter. A popular Wall Street phrase is “stocks climb a wall of worry” – referring to the tendency for equity markets to overcome a host of negative factors and move higher. Yet is seems the wall got too high in the quarter. Global growth fears (led by China), increasing uncertainty of U.S. monetary policy, and continued pressure in Emerging Markets were just some of the concerns that had investors scrambling for the exits. While all of these factors warrant careful consideration, it is Cambiar’s view that the correction in the quarter was of the “shoot first/ask questions later” variety, vs. fundamentally driven. Given our value orientation, such reflexive selling can provide attractive entry points; to that extent, Cambiar used the market weakness to deploy capital into a number of new investments during the quarter. [+] Read More

Federated Investors - International Market Commentary

November 3, 2015

Federated Investor's Q3 international strategic value dividend account commentary reivews the affect of August volatility and the ability of their strategy to provide a substantially higher-than-market yield and long-term dividend growth. "Market Overview" Equity markets pulled off their August low but were still down on the month, closing out their worst quarter in four years as investor fears over China, lower oil and a potential global slowdown outweighed generally better economic data at home.The Federal Reserve added to the uncertainty and volatility, choosing to put off liftoff at its September meeting, rattling the markets even though futures had put the odds of a move at well below even. [+] Read More

Eagle Asset Management - Interest Rates and Equity Markets

October 27, 2015

Eagle Asset Management's Richard Skeppstrom reviews the Fed's interest rate decision and discusses current equity markets in this month's market perspective. "Interest-rate constipation U.S. economic growth was nearly 4 percent in the second quarter and the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to leave rates at 0. It was rumored to be a close call but labor conditions aren’t perfect: too many aren’t looking for work, international markets are unsettled and infl ation remains just below target. I didn’t believe 0.25 percent made any difference anyway but equities weren’t thrilled. You might think that after watching these things for 20-some years, I’d know if the news were good or bad; however, I’m not even sure what the news was in this case. Some countries aren’t well-run? Some people would rather not work? In any case, the Fed still believes it imprudent to pay interest on savings. Congrats to the borrowers. [+] Read More

Eagle Asset Management - Market Volatility Perspective

September 30, 2015

Eagle Asset Management's Richard Skeppstrom says we're in no danger of a recession and asks investors not to panic. Continuing market volatility and the possibility of a slight increase in interest rates do not necessarily spell disaster. "Don't Panic The market’s momentum was ebbing with the slowing of global growth. The return of volatility was inevitable and corrections are a fact. People panic for a reason; there’s generally no shortage of reasons and happily there are very few good ones. Unfortunately, in the last 15 years, we’ve had two wrenching stock collapses and they remain fresh in everyone’s minds. In the first, the U.S. Federal Reserve tightened to rein in the tech bubble (that it had ignored/blessed) and associated nonsense but there’d been too much excess and the economy fell into recession. In the second, the Fed tightened to rein in the housing bubble (that it created) and associated nonsense but there’d been too much excess and the banking system nearly collapsed, dragging the economy into the Great Recession. [+] Read More

ClearBridge Investments Commentary - Large Cap Growth Portfolios

September 2, 2015

ClearBridge Investment's Peter Bourbeau and Margaret Vitrano provide their perspective on the second quarter discussing their large cap growth portfolios. "As with stocks, the U.S. economy continued its slow march forward through the second quarter. Employment continued to lead the way, with payrolls increasing by an average of 221,000 per month, and the unemployment rate declining to 5.3%, its lowest level since April 2008. Consumer spending and new and existing home sales showed healthy improvement in May, while consumer confidence bounced back late in the quarter. The CEO of a major retailer we spoke with during the quarter indicated that consumers are now feeling good enough about their finances to expand purchases from basic staples to higher-priced apparel and home furnishings. Offsetting those gains were disappointing reports on GDP growth, with the final revision to first-quarter data showing that the economy contracted by 0.2% in the three months of the year, as well as industrial production. [+] Read More

Cambiar Investors Commentary - China, Greece, and Interest Rates

August 27, 2015

Cambiar Investor's Q2 2015 market commentary discusses China, interest rates, and what it all means so far this year. "The Waiting Game Financial market returns were quiet in the second quarter, seemingly waiting for some kind of definitive signal that never arrived. The S&P 500 Index, MSCI EAFE Index, and MSCI Emerging Markets Index were each essentially flat for the quarter, with relatively limited volatility. The former two had each about a 3% gain going into the last 10 days of the quarter, but surrendered their gains as Greece threatened (for the fifth time in as many years) an uncontrolled debt default and exit from the Euro system. The Greek's gamesmanship was once again cauterized by international financial agencies only after the Greeks were very bluntly threatened back with the same medicine. This suggests that European authorities are no longer concerned that a Greek Eurozone exit would be a systemically destabilizing event. [+] Read More