George Hosfield, CFA, discusses Ferguson Wellman's quarterly strategy titled, "Inflation's Flame Flickers," which addresses the narrow market leadership, the impact of higher interest rates on inflation and how assets are priced at this stage of the economic cycle.
George Hosfield, CFA, discusses the firm's quarterly strategy titled "Stalemate," which highlights the Fed's ongoing battle to tame inflation along with our views on the health of the banking industry and capital market expectations for the balance of the year.
Director and Chief Investment Officer George Hosfield, CFA, discusses the Fed raising interest rates, peaking inflation and our view on equities and volatility across all asset classes in our Investment Strategy titled, “Balancing Act.”
Cascade Bancorp, the parent company of Bend-based Bank of the Cascades, is seeing strong growth across its Northwest footprint as a result of the economy and recent acquisitions, CEO Terry Zink said Wednesday. “The many strategic investments we have made are fueling our growth,” Zink said during a conference call with investors on third-quarter earnings.
As the week draws to a close, we wanted to share some perspective on what was a surprising week for our political system. Against this backdrop, the capital markets once again demonstrated they do not like surprises or uncertainty. Following the announcement that Donald Trump had secured the necessary 270 electoral delegates, equity markets sold off
Equity markets fell a little more than 1 percent on the week as the presidential race grew closer with the news of renewed investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of personal emails during her time as Secretary of State. Additionally, the Fed chose not to raise interest rates when they met on Wednesday, but signaled pretty clearly that they would be tightening in December.
Relatively modest losses in the S&P 500 this week masked enormous volatility in the pricing of underlying companies, thanks to a deluge of third quarter earnings reports that resulted in what felt like a feast or famine result for individual stocks. This last full week of October
The recession is in the rear view mirror, panelists told an audience of more than 300 at the Bend Chamber’s annual Economic Forecast Breakfast.
“The news delivered by our panelists was not as grim as one might have thought,” said Bend Chamber EVP of Programs and Events Robin Rogers. “The overarching forecast was, 2017 will actually be better than 2016 and, 2018 should also be a growth year.”
Central Oregon’s economic expansion has slowed, but that doesn’t mean another recession is around the corner, according to the panel at the annual Economic Forecast Breakfast, presented Thursday by the Bend Chamber of Commerce.
Disappointing corporate earnings forecasts outweighed a Microsoft surge and increased deal activity to end the week basically flat for the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and NASDAQ. Worldwide stock markets also turned in lackluster performances for the week. The U.S. dollar climbed to a
After the financial crisis of 2008-09, resilient investors made U.S. stocks great again. Whether lured by the hope of renewed earnings growth or a dearth of attractive alternatives, they piled into the market, pushing the major indexes to successive peaks.
A Nobel Prize for Bob Dylan couldn’t buoy the markets this week. Uncertainty in China and a rocky start to earnings season resulted in a down week for stocks. While equities rallied on Friday, the S&P 500 ended the week down close to 1 percent. Pre-announcements from Honeywell, Dover and Fastenal weren’t a positive way to start the week; however, [...]
PORTLAND, Ore. – October 14, 2016 – Ferguson Wellman Capital Management and West Bearing Investments have been named by Portland Business Journal as a leader in corporate philanthropy in Oregon and southwest Washington.
Mixed economic data led to weaker stock markets around the world this week. U.S. equities were down around less than 1 percent, while international benchmarks were modestly negative as well. One would expect with negative equity markets that interest rates would have dropped as well, but
An unusually “quiet” August spawned new highs for U.S. stocks, but recent softness in economic data amid a contentious election season has given investors pause. Fundamentally, earnings have declined for five straight
After another positive week, the S&P 500 finished the quarter up almost 4 percent and is up 8 percent for the year. The 10-year Treasury finished the week in the middle of its recent trading range at 1.59 percent. Mixed economic data kept the Fed on hold for another quarter and put a bid into equities.
Originally appeared on Bloomberg.com on September 28, 2016
Stumpf’s Pay Cut Eclipsed by Fury as Yellen, State Join In
Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf gave up $41 million to buy a reprieve from the bank’s widening scandal.
Stocks finished the week up over one percent as the Fed held steady on rates but provided positive commentary on the U.S. economy. With the lack of Fed action, the 10-year Treasury yield fell 0.06 percent to close the week at 1.63 percent.
Despite volatility, the stock market appears to heading for a slight gain of around 0.5 percent for the week. Bond yields trended higher, with the benchmark 10-year trading at 1.66 percent versus last Friday’s level of 1.57 percent.
After an unusually long spell of low volatility, stocks and bonds sold off in tandem to end a week that was previously on the quiet side following the Labor Day holiday. Coming into Friday, stocks had essentially earned out the high single-digit returns we foresaw for 2016. Low levels of economic growth globally should renew profit growth in future quarters, but neither stocks nor bonds are cheap at this point.
With today’s jobs number showing a monthly gain of 151,000, it didn’t tip the scales much regarding a Federal Reserve rate hike this year. This number was below expectations of 180,000; however, it was still viewed as solid growth. Wage growth remained a steady 2.4 percent, slightly below last month. The August jobs report number regularly gets revised higher.
The markets were quiet this week investors awaited Janet Yellen’s commentary on the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole summit. As the week came to a close, the S&P 500 sold off slightly, finishing the week down 0.6 percent. Healthcare stocks fared far worse, selling off 2.2 percent following Hillary Clinton’s statements regarding the price increase of EpiPen®, a Mylan
