Weekly Market Commentary 7/26/17

July 26th, 2017 by Anchor Bay Capital's Investment Team

Last Week’s Market:

 

The S&P 500 finished up a half a percent last week as stocks continue their steady march upward for the year.  Small moves in both directions have been the norm over the last few weeks, but the S&P 500 is up 11.67% through July 21^st.

 

 

• Stocks have been more focused on earnings this year than what is going on politically and we expect that to be the same throughout this week.
• Many S&P 500 companies are reporting 2^nd quarter earnings this week and so far there have been strong results.
• Our approach has always been to select quality companies that grow earnings and dividends consistently. At this mid-year point, we look forward to evaluating how our positions are progressing and we expect that we will be able to continue to capture growth and income from our stocks as we proceed through the second half of the year.
• Fixed Income (Bonds and Bond Funds) is primarily acting as a factor to reduce market risk in the portfolios.  We do not expect bond yields to change drastically in the short term.  This means that bonds will primarily maintain principal and produce modest income for us.