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The Battle of Bull Run
The great Treasury Bull Run (see Exhibit 1) is over. That was the consensus exactly one year ago, as the vast majority of strategists and economists predicted higher interest rates in 2014. And why...
View ArticleThe Shale Patch – Money for nothing and the risk for free!
The shale revolution has touched everyone’s life here in the United States. As I drove home recently, I noticed that regular unleaded gas was $2.63 per gallon. A year ago, according to the American...
View ArticleAnother Fed false start
Like an overanxious Olympic sprinter, US interest rates can’t seem to gain their footing and exit the starting blocks. Each time rates look ready to liftoff towards normal, there seems to be a false...
View ArticleDown… but not necessarily out
At Fort Pitt Capital, we describe our Individual Securities investment process as owning well run companies at reasonable prices and holding on to them. Our goal is competitive long-term portfolio...
View ArticleCountdown to liftoff
The second quarter of 2015 can be characterized as very volatile, highly eventful and extremely interesting. The Greeks and the Troika (made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and...
View ArticleThe Fed’s seven-year itch
Aside from Jay Sommariva’s quarterly missives on the bond market, we generally refrain from commenting on U.S. Federal Reserve policy in these newsletters. That’s because (in the short run at least)...
View ArticleMastering limited partnerships
For the last seven years, interest rate suppression by central banks worldwide has forced investors to reach for higher yielding investments. High cash payouts relative to the puny yields available on...
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Fed games
The highly anticipated September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting came and went with the same result we’ve been seeing for six years—no change. (See Exhibit 1.) The U.S. central bank...
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2016 story remains the same
January is prediction season, and here at Fort Pitt we like to demonstrate that we’re at least thinking about the economic future, even if we’re really not able to do much about it. Investing is about...
View ArticleZero no more!
After many months of anticipation, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) recently raised the Fed Funds rate by one quarter of a percent, from a range of 0–.25 percent to .25–.50 percent. Fed Chair...
View ArticleWhere to for stocks? A peek at 2017
Here at Fort Pitt Capital Group, we often describe the stock market as a “forward looking animal,” and with good reason. It functions as a giant discounting machine, putting a price on unknown future...
View ArticleBrexit and the bond market
Throughout the second quarter of 2016, the specter of a “Brexit” vote hung over fixed income markets. Federal Reserve policymakers said as much in mid-June, when Chair Janet Yellen admitted that...
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The 2% solution
The US economy can’t get out of its own way. Seven years of sub 3 percent economic growth have discouraged millions of middle and working-class families and deferred the dreams of the millennial...
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Push me pull you
The tug of war in US interest rates continued in the third quarter of 2016. The US economy showed some strength on the employment front that pushed rates up, but these forces were offset by Federal...
View ArticleBrexit and the bond market
Throughout the second quarter of 2016, the specter of a “Brexit” vote hung over fixed income markets. Federal Reserve policymakers said as much in mid-June, when Chair Janet Yellen admitted that...
View ArticleCountdown to liftoff
The second quarter of 2015 can be characterized as very volatile, highly eventful and extremely interesting. The Greeks and the Troika (made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and...
View ArticleThe Fed’s seven-year itch
Aside from Jay Sommariva’s quarterly missives on the bond market, we generally refrain from commenting on U.S. Federal Reserve policy in these newsletters. That’s because (in the short run at least)...
View ArticleMastering limited partnerships
For the last seven years, interest rate suppression by central banks worldwide has forced investors to reach for higher yielding investments. High cash payouts relative to the puny yields available on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fed games
The highly anticipated September Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting came and went with the same result we’ve been seeing for six years—no change. (See Exhibit 1.) The U.S. central bank...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2016 story remains the same
January is prediction season, and here at Fort Pitt we like to demonstrate that we’re at least thinking about the economic future, even if we’re really not able to do much about it. Investing is about...
View Article