Take a look at last week’s market recap from Joe Gallemore, CIMA® Partner & Director of Investment Management for Argent Bridge Advisors. Watch the video now!

Joe’s Notes:

• The week of Thanksgiving saw a calm 3 days followed by a very sharp decline on Black Friday.  The reason for the sharp decline in one day is inexact but seems to a confluence of factors such as high inflation, declining consumer sentiment about the stock market, grumblings in the Federal Reserve of potentially tightening monetary policy sooner than indicated, and spiking numbers of the Omicron Covid variant.
• Then the following week saw daily gyrations up and down of 1-2% per day.  This sort of oscillating movement suggests its just a bunch of opportunistic trading, possibly profit-taking followed buy investors buying-the-dip. 
• Large cap US stocks continue to weather the volatility the best… this is the equity asset class to which our clients have greatest exposure.  But the correlation between different areas of the equity market have spread out with Small cap, Mid caps, International, and emerging market stock indexes all moving in different directions in different magnitudes week by week. 
• We continue to remain invested.  There is certainly no emerging down trend in the market so far.  If we see meaningful down swings, we use those to capture tax opportunities and also put cash to work. 
• So volatility may continue as the Fed’s policy continues to be somewhat dynamic, as the Omicron variant is studied and worked out, as Congress debates potential spending & tax legislation, and, most importantly, as the economy continues to renormalize and grow.   This last one is the most important.