Stocks are in a severe recovery stage, boosted further by the announcement on Friday that the Strait of Hormuz was being reopened to commercial traffic. Oil prices plunged, stocks took another leg up, and yields fell across the curve. Let the good times roll.....or are things really this good?

This is an update of my 1Q2026 portfolio performance. My all-in return was nil, which was not disappointing (to me at least) given the performance of assets prices in March, following the beginning of the US-Israel war against Iran.

Although Friday marked an improvement in US stocks, volatility increased further last week as the ROI on A.I. spend came back into investor's focus. Rotation from tech to value has been the theme so far of 2026. Meanwhile, European and Japanese stocks again outperformed US stocks. Gold rediscovered its mojo even as Bitcoin continues to plummet. Yields were slightly improved across the UST curve, high yield spreads widened, and the greenback was better bid.

Stocks and precious metals bounce around as more earnings come and go, the Fed holds rates steady as expected, and a new Fed chairman is nominated by Mr Trump.

This article contains a summary of full-year 2024 performance of the indices and assets tracked by EMC, plus historical data, too.

This is a guest post about gold, penned by online investment firm BullionVault. Gold has just pierced $2,100/oz, reaching a record high.

Since I write a lot about markets and macroeconomic topics, it is only fair that I talk about my own investment portfolio.

The Street pros provide year-end 2023 projections for stocks and bonds, so why not EMC? Here are my guesstimates and rationales.

2022 has been an abysmal year for most indices and asset classes globally, with the exceptions being oil, gold and the FTSE 100. Now what?