Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of January 15, 2019

Article Excerpt

In our January 2 Inner Circle issue of two weeks ago I said that if the stock market is headed into a further downturn in 2019, the least likely course for it would be a replay of the 2008/2009 economic and market slump. Obviously nobody guesses right on these things every time. But I just don’t see any reason to brace for anything so severe. Instead, I feel any further market unpleasantness this year is more likely to resemble the downturn of the first few years of the new millennium. The market downturn of 2001 through 2003 wrung the excesses out of the Internet-stock mania, which got started in the previous decade. Stock promotions during the Internet mania reached outrageous valuation peaks. As with most stock promotions, few of these ever made a profit and many wound up worthless. The 2001-2003 downturn was generally much easier on the well-established companies that make up the bulk of our clients’ portfolios. These higher-quality stocks…