Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (5/21/2013)

William A. Martone — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:24:22 +0100

One of the questions being asked by many investors is, “when will inflation rear its head?” With the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates so low for so long, there has long been an expectation among many that inflation will be rising. For the past several years, however, inflation has remained contained and our expectation is that the inflation environment is unlikely to change any time soon. The bottom line is that with the economy still in the midst of a fragile recovery and w...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (5/14/2013)

William A. Martone — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:45:34 +0100

US stocks are up this year, but in one critical way the rally is quite unusual. Typically, when stocks advance dramatically it is a sign of increased risk appetite on the part of investors. In other words, when stock markets climb rapidly, higher-risk asset classes are usually outperforming. While we are seeing some signs of this many higher-risk investments such as commodities and emerging markets equities have actually been performing quite poorly. In the current rally, inve...

Westchester Networking for Professionals Joins American Diabetes Association Walk To Stop Diabetes

Jessica Jones — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:33:56 +0100

Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) has announced its partnership with The American Diabetes Association of Westchester County in support of pre...

Networking Organization Unveils New Design of Website

Jessica Jones — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 22:02:33 +0100

Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) a popular business networking organization in Westchester County, NY is excited to announce the unveiling of their newly designed and improved website. The new site design brings new features and updates previous attributes for easier browsing. After listening to feedback from others, the redesign features more advertising space, better navigations for easier searches, and is more user friendly.

The new desig...

Professional Networking Organization Releases New Brochure

Jessica Jones — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 21:56:52 +0100

Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP), one of Westchester County, New York’s largest and longest standing networking organization for business professionals, has just released their new brochure which features information on how WNFP can help businesses and entrepreneurs gain exposure, new customers and getting the word out about company products and services.

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (7/16/2012)

William A. Martone — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:22:10 +0100

The pace of global economic activity continues to slow with recessions in several European countries dampening demand for goods and services from other countries around the world. However, this past week, several central banks stepped up efforts to support global economic growth. These foreign policy changes are likely to help the U.S. economy maintain modest economic growth.

Investors in the U.S. often focus on U.S. economic policies; howeve...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (6/19/2012)

William A. Martone — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 19:02:18 +0100

The past two weeks have been better for stocks, with the major indexes up in consecutive weeks for the first time in more than a month. However, investors have had to endure a seesaw of ups and downs as markets try to anticipate the next phase of sentiment. The down-market sentiment has been triggered mainly by concerns about the European financial crisis and the contagion from country to country, with the effects most visible in fixed income markets, government debt and bank stocks. ...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (6/14/2012)

William A. Martone — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:13:59 +0100

Following a significant slide the week before, stocks bounced back last week, primarily due to a growing sense that policymakers in Europe and the United States may be ready to engage in further easing measures. The increasing stress in Europe has put additional pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) and on other policymakers to take stronger action, and, indeed, over the weekend European finance ministers announced a new plan to recapitalize the Spanish banking sector. In the United Sta...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (6/4/2012)

William A. Martone — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 18:23:09 +0100

For some time, we have been suggesting that the US economy had been holding up relatively well compared to the rest of the world. While we are not changing that view, last week's data (particularly May's employment report) provided a negative jolt and pushed stock prices down sharply.

Our summary view of the US economy is that while the United States appears to have entered another slowdown phase with the data growing more disappointing in recent weeks, the case for a renewed recession...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (5/31/2012)

William A. Martone — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:39:06 +0100

The market decline that has occurred over the last couple of months has largely been attributed to escalating concerns over the European debt crisis and we believe that Europe remains the chief variable in determining the future direction of the global economy. If Europe's debt crisis remains reasonably well contained, the world should continue to grow at a modest pace with the United States doing relatively well; if debt contagion becomes chaotic and uncontrollable, it would be an entirely d...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (5/22/2012)

William A. Martone — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:18:11 +0100

Although US economic data was generally good last week, stocks sank sharply as investor fears over Europe's debt problems intensified.

Currently - the focus of the European debt crisis is on Greece, particularly on next month's elections. The upcoming elections look to be turning into a referendum on whether or not Greece will remain part of the eurozone. Should the more extreme parties in Greece gain popularity, the greater the likelihood that the country exits the eurozone. The more ...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (5/15/2012)

William A. Martone — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:42:54 +0100

Last week was a difficult one for the markets with stocks sinking yet again. The primary culprit appeared to be an escalation of Europe's debt woes.

Although markets have been troubled in recent weeks, we do not believe investors should confuse the current situation with an ending to the bull market that has been in force since early 2009. Historically, sustained declines in equity prices tend to be associated with either economic downturns or earnings recessions, neither of which appe...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (5/9/2012)

William A. Martone — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:44:45 +0100

Stocks struggled last week in the face of some weaker economic data (most notably, a disappointing April payrolls report). For the week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.4% to 13,038, the S&P 500 Index fell 2.4% to 1,369 and the Nasdaq Composite declined 3.7% to 2,956. These losses roughly corresponded to the gains that stocks had made in the previous week and, as a result, stocks are now at the lower end of the trading range that has been in effect for the last three months or ...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (5/1/2012)

William A. Martone — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:13:30 +0100

Over the past month, stocks have traded in a somewhat volatile pattern as investors have been weighing both the positives and negatives. Last week, despite some renewed flare-ups in terms of the ongoing European debt crisis, investors focused on the continued string of positive corporate earnings reports.

At this point in the first-quarter earnings season, nearly half of the S&P 500 companies have reported and between 70% and 80% have surpassed expectations. While this alone points...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (4/24/2012)

William A. Martone — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:47:27 +0100

After a couple of weeks of declines, markets managed to recover a bit last week, although they appear to remain mired in the same sloppy trading pattern they have been in for the last month

The economic backdrop continues to be mixed, but the overall trend continues to be one in which the US economy appears to be growing slowly. One interesting pattern that has emerged in recent months is that the US household sector has been picking up strength at the same time that the industrial sid...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (4/17/2012)

William A. Martone — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:18:59 +0100

Once again, risk assets struggled last week with most investors blaming the downturn on re-ignition of concerns over the European debt crisis brought about by a disappointing debt auction in Spain.

Last year around this time, stocks were coming off an impressive first quarter, but were headed for trouble. Higher oil prices, the earthquake in Japan and the brouhaha over the US debt ceiling all conspired to cause a sharp turnaround in risk assets. So far this year, stocks have been follo...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (4/12/2012)

William A. Martone — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:54:40 +0100

Stocks sagged again last week in the face of renewed concerns about the European debt crisis and indications that the Federal Reserve would be less likely to engage in additional quantitative easing measures.

Friday saw the release of a disappointing labor market report for March. The data showed that payrolls grew by a less-than-expected 120,000, although the unemployment rate did fall to 8.2%, its lowest level in over three years.

The tepid pace of jobs growth in Mar...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (4/3/2012)

William A. Martone — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:45:36 +0100

One of the primary reasons for the recent advance in stock prices has been that economic data have been surprisingly positive. Additionally, central banks around the world (including the US Federal Reserve) have remained committed to retaining exceptionally accommodative monetary policies.

There are certainly some significant downside risks that investors should remain aware of, including rising oil and gasoline prices that have been exacerba...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (3/27/12)

William A. Martone — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:54:35 +0100

Stocks sank last week, but the focus for investors has been on developments in the bond market.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury had been trading at around the 2.0% level for a period of several months before moving sharply higher in recent weeks. The yield rose to above 2.35% last week before settling at around 2.25% by the end of the week (bond prices move inversely to yields). The selloff in bonds has caused some to wonder whether we are at the forefront of a bond bear ma...

Martone Capital Management: Weekly Investment Commentary (3/14/12)

William A. Martone — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:18:23 +0100

It has been a consistent market theme for the last several weeks: Stocks have been moving higher, but the pace of gains has been slower than it was at the beginning of the year. Last week, market action was dominated by a sharp sell off early in the week, but that trend was reversed by week's end on the news that some significant progress was made regarding Greece's debt restructuring.

The headline economic news from last week was the February payrolls report. As has been the case for ...

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