2019 Q3 - President's Post

October 15, 2019

President & CEO Dan Kraninger reflects on the 3rd quarter of 2019 and provides insight moving forward.

 

“People only see what they are prepared to see.”   - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Count the number of F’s in the following sentence…  

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

NorthCoast maintains opportunistic posture moving into 4th quarter

October 1, 2019

What happened in September?

After the volatility in August, U.S. equity markets rebounded to push the S&P 500 index positive for the 3rd quarter. The index now sits just over 1% below its record high set in July. During the month, investors appeared to rotate away from the more expensive momentum equities towards undervalued stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq finished the month with its first quarterly decline in 2019. Despite the general market rise during September, some cautious domestic economic data was released. Consumer spending grew at a modest 0.1% during August, below the average 0.5% a month during the first 7 months of the year. Slowed consumer spending still raises concerns that the economic slowing abroad coupled with continued trade conflict may be affecting the U.S. The Federal Reserve will also announce their rate decision at the end of October. By then, some new economic data will have been released and their decision will likely be clearer. For now, expectations are that the central bank will cut rates. International equities rebounded more strongly than the U.S. in September, but the general ACWI-ex U.S. Index was negative for the 3rd quarter. While economic and sentiment concerns loom larger abroad than in the U.S., equity prices are much more accommodating and technical indicators are solid.