Stocks hit new highs in the first half of 2014, while posting modest gains. Looking forward to the second half of the year, we begin with a forecast from Liz Ann Sonders and her team at Charles Schwab. Despite the fact that we’re in the midst of the fourth longest bull market on record, there is a noticeable lack of exuberance among market analysts. Nick Summers looks into the situation for Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Those following the world markets are concerned about the recent spike in prices for crude oil. Our global economic recovery is tied to it, as Simon Kennedy explains.
Schwab Market Perspective: Halftime– Liz Ann Sonders and her team at Schwab believe U.S. stocks still look attractive, with the U.S. economy continuing to gather momentum while monetary policy remains quite easy. However, risks have probably grown over the past few weeks. They believe a correction would be a healthy pause in an ongoing secular bull market. http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/nn/articles/Market-Perspective
A Bull Market Where The Exuberance Has Gone Missing– The U.S. stock market keeps inching up to one record high after another with remarkably little fanfare. At 1,934 days, the rally is the fourth-longest bull market—a period with at least a 20 percent gain and no 20 percent declines—on record. As they say on Wall Street, the resurgence is untrusted, unloved, and certainly no cause for celebration. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-26/stock-market-soars-yet-wall-street-sentiment-is-tepid
Rising Oil Prices Loom Over World Economic Recovery– The global economy faces a new threat from an old enemy: oil. A spike in the price of crude foreshadowed economic slumps in each of the last four decades.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-26/rising-oil-prices-loom-over-world-economic-recovery
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John R. Day, Bill Ennis, Stephanie Davidson and Matt Heller