C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Individual Investors Sell Stock and Bond Funds, While Institutional Investors Shun Stocks

Outflows from domestic equity mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) accelerated into year-end 2018.  According to data from the Investment Company Institute (ICI), domestic equity funds experienced outflows of $105.5 billion in 2018, $30 billion of which flowed out in the fourth quarter.  ...
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C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Economic Fears Feed Market Volatility but Slow Stable Growth and Tame Inflation Could Be Bullish for Stocks in 2019

Positioning portfolios for next year and beyond will be challenging for top down investors and managers. The 2019 and 2020 economic and corporate profit outlooks are murky and investors who remember the sting of the 2008 downtown may choose to remain in safe ports rather than face the risk that the...
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C.J. Lawrence Weekly Market Comment – Supply-Demand Imbalance Bodes Well for Rebound in Housing Related Stocks

The growth in the pace of housing completions, now at a 1.26 million seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR), suggests that the U.S. housing market remains under-supplied and is only inching its way back to balance. At the same time, millennials are entering the housing market at a rapid pace, h...
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C.J. Lawrence Weekly Market Comment – Healthy Corporate Fundamentals and Stalled Bond Yields Keep the CJL Market Monitor in BUY Territory

The Market Monitor’s current reading is “BUY”, with a numerical score of +1, the lowest reading in BUY territory, on a scale of -6 to +6. As the Fed has lifted the Fed Funds target rate, the year-over-year interest rate rate-of-change models have weighed on the Monitor score. But despite ri...
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C.J. Lawrence Weekly – Support for Consumer Discretionary Stocks…U.S. Household Net Worth Exceeds $100 Trillion for First Time

The Fed’s recent snapshot paints a picture of a healthy U.S. household sector.  That is good news for U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), two-thirds of which is driven by consumer spending.  But while some market watchers suggest that the U.S. economy is late in the business cycle, U.S. household...
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