The Markets (as of market close January 24, 2020) Last week proved to be a tough one for the market as each of the benchmark indexes listed here lost value. Concern over the possible spread of the coronavirus from China apparently provided the impetus for investors to pull away from stocks. Long-term bond prices soared, pushing yields 15 basis points lower. The price of gold also climbed after falling the week prior. The small caps of the Russell 2000 were hit the hardest, do

The Markets (as of market close January 17, 2020) Each of the benchmark indexes listed here enjoyed strong gains last week, led by the Russell 2000, which climbed 2.53% to push its year-to-date gains to nearly 2.0%. The Dow has posted weekly gains for five of the last six weeks, the S&P 500 advanced for the second consecutive week, and the Nasdaq has risen for six straight weeks. A strong housing starts report helped push stocks higher. But investors were most encouraged by a

The Markets (as of market close January 10, 2020) Last Friday's jobs report was a mixed bag of information. While 145,000 new jobs were added and the unemployment rate remained at 3.5%, wage growth was tepid in December to cap off a year of only moderate wage growth. This information, coupled with news that the Senate would receive the articles of impeachment this week, culled what was otherwise a strong week for stocks. The Dow passed 29000 earlier last week only to pull bac

The Markets (as of market close January 3, 2020) A strong start last week for the benchmark indexes listed here was wiped out by rising tensions in the Middle East. Only the Nasdaq was able to close slightly higher last week as the other benchmark indexes listed here closed the week in the red. Both the Dow and S&P 500 lost value, as did the Global Dow. The small caps of the Russell 2000 had the worst week-over-week performance, falling about 0.50%. On the other hand, oil, go