
2018 Q1 Investor Quarterly Market Commentary and Investment Perspectives
Greetings,
The first calendar quarter of 2018 saw the end of the longest consecutive monthly gains (fifteen) for the S&P 500 Index in history, a “flattening” of the U.S. bond yield curve, a “narrowing” of credit spreads, and a change in the leadership of the Federal Reserve Bank.
The S&P 500 Index started the year in a continuation of the strong 2017 advance (+21.14%, including reinvested dividends), rising +7.45% the first three-plus weeks of the year to its record high level of 2,872.87, before plummeting (-10.16%) over the next nine trading days. It bounced around the mid-point of those two points before finishing Q1 2018 down, (-0.76%).