Zacks Investment Management

Earnings posed a legitimate headline risk in the second quarter: total earnings for S&P 500 companies were down -2.1% from the same period last year on -3.4% lower revenues. Yikes.
And, that’s coming off a weak first quarter when earnings basically flat-lined nudging only +0.8% higher.[…]

Jobs in America – the unemployment situation been a perceived blemish on the U.S. economy for some time, but the numbers don’t support the negative sentiment. In the month of August, the economy added 173,000 jobs and contributed further to the ongoing trend: monthly 2014 job additions were +10% above 2013,[…]

The market’s recent flare-up – or flare-‘down’ – has created three camps in the investor community: those who have turned bearish, those who have become nervous enough to reduce their equity exposure, and those who remain bullish over the longer term and see this as an opportunity.[…]

If you’re nervous about where the market is headed (after enduring two eyebrow-raising weeks of pronounced volatility) then guess what – you’re normal. Human nature is to fear losses, and memory of the 2008 bear market still lingers. Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman discovered that investors dislike losses roughly twice as much as they enjoy gains.[…]

In this week’s edition…

The Beacon of Light for Emerging Markets: India
Meanwhile Brazil Continues to Fizzle
Mixed Signals from Global Purchasing Manager’s Indices
Battered Hedge Funds

The Beacon of Light for Emerging Markets: India – India reported a 7% rise in GDP during the April-June period (year-over-year),[…]

Volatility has rattled the market with the S&P 500 down slightly more than 11% in just six trading days (though 8/26/15). Global markets have fared worse. But, my advice to you now is – don’t let it rattle you too.
To many investors,[…]

China rattled global equities on Tuesday, August 11 when they devalued the yuan against the dollar nearly 2%; the largest devaluation since China implemented its ‘modern’ exchange rate system in 1994. The S&P 500 immediately sank -1.5% at the start of trading on Wednesday (August 12),[…]

There’s “conventional wisdom” out there that as a bull market matures, large cap stocks tend to become the outperformers. According to this thinking, investors tend to shift investments to companies with well-established revenue sources, market penetration, and huge stockpiles of cash as a bull market ages.[…]