Volatility in the market continues to be high in May as the debt ceiling impasse between US political parties generated headlines over the month while sticky inflation data from US and Europe [...]

The stock market in April displayed high levels of volatility due to multiple factors such as another bank failure, inflation woes, and a decelerating US economy. Despite these issues, the stock [...]

Given the headlines in early and mid-March, one might be forgiven for thinking that it would be a terrible month for markets as banks seemed to be collapsing and some Credit Suisse bondholders [...]

Like January, February continues to show a positive correlation between equities and bonds albeit in an unfavourable direction. As shown in Exhibit 1, the S&P 500, tracking US large [...]

The January effect is a phenomenon where stocks tend to rise at the beginning of the year. The January effect was in full play this year as the stock market rallied following the news of [...]

2022 ended on a far more sombre note, and the 4th quarter rally in stocks fizzled out in December. Equity and bond indexes fell in December after central banks continued to remain committed to [...]

Last week, 4 major central banks (US, UK, Europe and Swiss) raised their main interest rates by 0.5% (Exhibit 1). While all the major banks have slowed down the pace of their rate hikes, their [...]

Stocks and bonds soared in November after lower-than-expected US inflation data in October and the Fed signalling a slowdown in rate hike. Released on November 10th, the US CPI, which measures [...]

October and the start of November have been great months to be invested, as markets have made up ground on the losses for the year. Undoubtedly, the recovery is not complete, and the outlook [...]

After 2 months of consecutive losses, the stock market rebounded amidst a possibility of a slowdown of rate hike by the Fed as well as positive sentiments toward US earnings results. 71% of [...]

We thought that it would be a good time to take the chance to share with you some of the common questions we have been receiving in the past months and use this opportunity to share our responses [...]

September was a brutal month for stocks as markets fell to the lowest since March 2020. After 4 rate hikes this year, the Federal Reserve raised an additional 0.75% in September after the [...]

Stock markets experienced their worst 1-day drop since the Covid pandemic in June 2020 on the news that inflation in the US rose in August. Against most expectations looking for a fall in oil [...]

Markets spent the last 2 months second-guessing the Fed with hopes of rate cuts in 2023 as recessionary fears loomed. Unfortunately, the old adage of don’t fight the Fed came back to give [...]

The past week saw the NASDAQ index rally 20% from its recent low in mid-June, leading to new headlines discussing the emergence of a new bull market for the NASDAQ stocks. New bull market? First, [...]

After a terrible June, stock markets rebounded strongly in July as investors found some relief from earnings that were not as bad as expected and a Fed that did not pull any surprises with a [...]

After a month of reprieve in May, selloff in the market resumes in June as the Fed raises rate by 0.75% to curb stubborn inflation. Our reference for stocks, the MSCI All Country World IMI Index [...]

Erratic trading sessions dominated the month of May as major indices fluctuated between gains and losses. The S&P 500 fell for the 7th straight week on 20th May briefly entering a bear market [...]

April was an extremely difficult month for stocks and bonds. The S&P 500 fell 8.8% in April, its worst month since March 2020, while our reference index, the MSCI AC World IMI did better, [...]

For the first quarter of 2022, investors have been plagued with news of high inflation, war, and rate hikes. Global market reacted to the news and had the worst performance since the global [...]

The start of 2022 has not been kind to the stock market as it continues to show negative returns in February. Temperamental market swings caused by rising inflation and upcoming rate hikes were [...]

January turned out to be one of the more volatile periods in the stock and bond markets in recent history. We saw 1000 point intraday swings in the Dow, 10-year treasury yields shooting sharply [...]

December capped a fantastic run for stocks in 2021, with some major gains for developed world stocks and a recovery for emerging markets. Bonds unfortunately fell again as fixed income markets [...]

November turned out to be a month of 2 halves, as stocks rose to records in mid-November as optimism over the economic recovery continued, but as news of the new Omicron variant started to emerge [...]

We do our best to emphasise to clients that returns are unpredictable and that one should not react to short-term news, but instead focus on the wealth plan and stay invested to capture the [...]

Not all stocks behave the same way September has provided some different headlines other than “stock markets set a new record high”, as stocks and bonds fell for the month, and US stocks in [...]

Developed world stocks continued to rise in August, and Emerging Market stocks rebounded after a tumble in July. Bonds fell as yields ticked up after Fed chairman Jerome Powell comments at the [...]

July looks a little like a tale of 2 regions, with Global equities continuing their slow and steady climb to new records, while EM stocks had a tumble as changing regulations around Chinese [...]

The summer months are typically a little less exciting in the markets as liquidity dries up. However, the lower liquidity can make for more volatile trading as market participants find it harder [...]

Should you sell in May? If you were reading the financial news headlines in May, you can be forgiven for thinking that it was not a very exciting month in the stock market as the S&P 500 rose [...]

April turned out to be yet another fantastic month to be invested in stocks, as stock market returns continued to be strong. One difference for the performance in the month was that value and [...]

The first quarter of 2021 ended well for our portfolios as value stocks and small stocks continued to outperform as the economic backdrop improved and major economies continue to re-open as the [...]

If you have been reading the financial news headlines you would think that stock markets had a terrible time in February. The headlines were not wrong as the typical barometers for stock market [...]

January was a good month for most of our portfolios, despite the broader markets being down for the month. This is because our allocations to smaller companies and to emerging market stocks [...]

What an eventful year. Before we look ahead to 2021, let us take a look back at how stocks and bonds performed in 2020 and see what happened. Exhibit 1: Performance of major indices 2020 (USD [...]

We have spent a lot of time and effort reminding our clients to 1) be invested and 2) stay invested over the past year. Sometimes, it is not evident why we encourage clients to do so, especially [...]

October was a prime example of the uncertainty facing investors in 2020. On one hand, we have improving economic data reviving hopes that a deep recession will be avoided, sending stocks higher [...]

If you read the news headlines in September, you would not be too amiss for thinking that the stock markets are again in dire shape. News about COVID-19 cases rising in Europe and the US, along [...]

We would like to start off by thanking our clients for staying invested with us through the recent market stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By staying invested, we have avoided realizing a [...]

Are stock markets not seeing the economic reality? Stock markets continued to rise in July, led by the major tech companies that turned in strong results for 2Q 2020. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, [...]

Stock markets lost some momentum going into June, with the S&P 500 up only 1.8% for the month after a blockbuster April and May. Emerging Markets picked up the slack by rising over 7% in June [...]

One of the core tenets of Providend’s Investment Philosophy is that we have a long-term focus. This means that we stay invested to capture the long-term asset class returns. We do not trade the [...]

This week marks the 4th week or mid-point of Singapore’s circuit breaker period which began on 7th April. It is a time that is unprecedented in our history, with the streets rather empty of cars, [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a pause in the economic activities which triggered one of the worst quarters of the financial market since 2008. Watch this video by Max Keeling, Head of Expat [...]

Without a doubt, this has been one of the worst quarters in financial markets in a long time, and the worst since 2008. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented pause in economic [...]

We are writing our usual end of month review a little earlier to give you an update on the markets as recent trends of the COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-COV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory [...]

We ended January with a note to clients on the impact that the Coronavirus is likely to have on our portfolios and discussed various ways our portfolios manage risk to reduce the downside impact [...]

Just like that, 2019 has gone by and US markets have had the best year this decade since 2013. If that sounds surprising, it’s only because of how quickly we recovered from the pain of 2018, [...]

Equity markets delivered another stellar month in November as the US market continued to make new highs with the S&P 500 notching up more record closes in the month. Supported by the [...]

Equity markets continued their ascent with the S&P 500 setting a record close to 3037.56, up 2.04% for the month. The MSCI World was up 2.54% and the MSCI EM was up 4.22% as both Global and [...]

The rumours of the demise of the value premium have been greatly exaggerated. We begin with a paraphrase of a quote from the famous author Mark Twain when asked about his health by a reporter. [...]

The trade war flared up in August as both the US and China signalled that they would impose new tariffs on imports. These tariffs did come into effect on 1st September, with the US imposing 15% [...]

The start of August marks an important milestone for Providend, as it has been three years since we started incorporating Evidence-Based funds from Dimensional, and Index funds from Vanguard into [...]

As the first half to 2019 draws to a close, the equity markets are celebrating one of the best first-half performances for a year in a long time. In fact, the S&P 500 has posted its best [...]

If we look at the historical data, the old saying of “Sell in May and go away” isn’t exactly very accurate as the markets don’t always go down in the May-Oct period. [...]

Stock markets had another strong month in April as the S&P 500 closed at a new historic high of 2945.83 at the end of the month, notching up a 4.05% (in USD) gain for the month. Local [...]

What do stocks do after one of the worst Decembers on record (in terms of market performance)? Start 2019 with one of the best first quarters in history! (For global equities. STI is another [...]

The S&P 500 closed February with its longest losing streak in 2019 of 3 days. It might sound a little gloomy, but this has been the best start for the index since 1991. The chart below shows [...]

US markets had their best January in 4 decades with the S&P 500 up 7.9% for the month, shrugging off the dismal end to 2018. The broader MSCI All Country World Index rose 7.9% while the MSCI [...]