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To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The stock market marched onward and upward in 2017. The S&P 500 total return, with dividends, was 21.8%. It was a relentlessly positive year for stocks – this was the first year that the S&P 500 had a positive return in every month. Volatility has apparently left…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC Well, 2016 is in the books and it was, at the least, interesting. We will discuss primarily matters financial but some politics will, by needs, be addressed. The year began with the worst first five days in market history, as the major indexes fell over 5%. After…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC After the most volatile year in the stock market since 2011, the S&P 500 managed to finish with a total return, with dividends, of 1.38%. Even with the paltry results of 2015, since the beginning of 2009 the S&P 500 has returned 162.8% or 14.8% annualized. That…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The market continued to march higher in 2014 with a third consecutive double-digit return for the S&P 500 – the first such streak since the 1990s. The index (with dividends) was up 13.65%. The stock market recovery from the depths of the financial crisis of 2008 has…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The stock market surpassed the all-time high reached in 2007, those halcyon pre-crisis days, and kept on rising. The S&P 500 delivered the highest annual total return since 1997, up 32.4%. Only a short five years ago the world financial and economic systems were in total turmoil,…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC This would not seem to be a flavorful investment recipe: combine a “fiscal cliff” with a heated presidential election, and then add a pinch of tepid job growth and a large dash of economic uncertainty. Finally, top it off with a huge government deficit. Although that brew…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The S&P 500 rose 9.5% in the first half, effectively delivering an average year’s total return in only six months though investor’s displayed little exuberance over the positive results. The beginning of 2012 was one of the most uncomfortable and angst- filled strong periods we can recall.…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The S&P 500 started the year at 1257.64. The S&P 500 finished the year at 1257.60. If you followed the markets with more than just a passing interest in 2011, you would be forgiven for initially doubting those facts. After such a violent ride, with so many…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC 2010 Market Indices Results: Standard & Poor’s 500 15.1% Dow Jones Industrial Average 14.1% The broad equity markets moved solidly higher in 2010, propelled by a combination of strong corporate earnings growth and improving investor sentiment. The markets’ strength occurred within a global economic environment that did…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC After beginning the year with a strong first quarter performance, the stock market finished the first half down following a very weak second quarter. For the year through June, the S & P 500, with dividends, was down 6.65%. Investors grew concerned in the second quarter about…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC 2009 Market Indices Results: Standard & Poor’s 500 26.5% Dow Jones Industrial Average 22.7% As the above results illustrate, the past year was pleasant for equity investors and provided some salve to the wounds inflicted by the bear market. But if you feel the decade just ended…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The first six months of 2009 provided investors with an exhilarating ride as the S&P 500 plunged over 25% by March, to the lowest level in over a decade, then roared back 40% by the end of the second quarter. After the excitement ended, the net result…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC We always begin our year-end letters with a brief review of the relevant investment statistics for the year. We will continue that tradition, although we recognize that few investors need the specifics to appreciate the extraordinary events in the capital markets. In 2008, the investment news became…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The weight of the challenges facing the U. S. economy took a heavy toll on the equity markets in the first half of the year. The S&P 500 fell 11.92%, the weakest first half since 2002. From its October 2007 high to the low reached in July,…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC Although 2007 was a year of growing market volatility and economic angst, the returns for the broad market were only moderately below the long-term average. Hidden behind the broad numbers were some extremely wide divergences in business and stock performance across industries and companies. The S&P 500,…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC After a nearly flat first quarter, the stock market moved solidly higher in the second quarter. The S&P 500 was up, with dividends, 6.24% and is up 6.99%, with dividends, through mid-year. Bond prices fell and yields rose with the ten-year Treasury bond yield rising to 5.03%…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The S&P 500 finished the first half of the year with a modest total return, including dividends, of 2.71%. The overall results give an impression of placidity, but belie the turbulence the equity markets have experienced since spring. The relative calm of the first quarter gave way…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The S&P 500 finished the first half of the year with a modest total return, including dividends, of 2.71%. The overall results give an impression of placidity, but belie the turbulence the equity markets have experienced since spring. The relative calm of the first quarter gave way…

The stock market fought, and barely won, the battle in 2005 against dramatically rising energy costs and relentless Federal Reserve interest rate increases. For the year, the S&P 500 with dividends was up a modest 4.9%. The Dow Jones Industrial average was down fractionally before dividends, but up 1.7% including dividends. During the year oil…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The market was unable to make any headway in the first half of the year. Much like the stone continuously pushed up the hill by the mythical Sisyphus, every advance was ultimately rolled back. The primary culprit was higher oil prices. Investor fears of the potential widening…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC The S&P 500 returned 10.87%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average a modest 5.30% (both with dividends re-invested) for the year. It would be tempting to refer to this as a “normal” year since total returns were close to the historic average for the broad equity market.…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC After three years of painful declines for the average equity investor, it was again pleasurable to own stocks in 2003. The S&P 500 rose 28.7%, including dividends. This was the strongest advance for the broad index since 1997. The gains were fueled by an economic acceleration, which…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon LLC In spite of turbulent economic news and geopolitical events, the equity and bond markets were subdued in the first half of the year. The major stock market indices made little headway for the period, and volatility was mild by recent standards. The S&P 500 rose 3.44%, while…

We are modifying the name of our firm to Parthenon LLC. We are doing this in order to avoid any potential confusion with a private equity investment firm in Boston that was formed at nearly the same time that we formed Parthenon. Coincidentally, the name of their firm is Parthenon Capital. Although their client base…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon Capital Management The stock market rallied sharply in the second quarter and most broad indices finished the first half of the year up over 10%, providing investors with a welcome respite after three years of relentless declines. The S&P 500 rose 11.78%, including dividends, for the first six…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon Capital Management The S&P 500 fell 13.2% in the first six months of the year. But the first half was only a prelude to the weakness to follow. Since the end of the quarter, the market decline has accelerated with the index now down more than 20% for…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon Capital Management For the first time in a generation the S&P 500 fell for two consecutive years. The Index fell 11.8% in 2001, which completes the first consecutive declines since 1973-1974. The past year was also the worst year for the index since 1974. Interestingly, this was only…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon Capital Management Although we can offer few words that would be adequate for the human toll of the terrorist attacks on America, our sympathies go out to all those who have suffered a loss. Before the attacks the economy appeared to be entering or bordering on a recession.…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon Capital Management A moderate dose of optimism returned to the stock market in the second quarter sending the S&P 500 up 5.85%, leaving the index down 6.69% for the first half of the year. Bond prices fell and yields on 10-year treasuries rose to 5.41% from 4.99%. The…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon Capital Management The date on the calendar changed but the market’s action was undeniably retro in the first quarter as stocks extended the decline of last year. The S&P 500 Index fell 11.9% in the period as the weakness that had been concentrated primarily in technology and internet…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon Capital Management Investors must search back over a quarter century to find a more negative year for total return on the S&P 500 Index than 2000. The Index fell 9.1% after an unprecedented string of five straight years with returns over 20%. The worst damage, obviously, occurred in…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon Capital Management Stocks finished the third quarter down marginally as measured by the S&P 500 Index. The Index, with dividends included, was down .97% in the quarter and down 1.37% through the first three quarters. The market has continued to weaken slightly in the fourth quarter with the…

To Our Clients and Friends of Parthenon Capital Management The S&P 500 rose 2.3% in the first quarter while the 30-year Treasury bond yield fell from 6.48% to 5.84% although shorter rates increased on average by .25% to .50%. That concludes our summation of the first quarter. We suspect the market’s activity in the first…

The stock market appeared to be rolling along on its way to a fifth straight 20% – plus year by mid-summer, but was derailed in the third quarter. The S&P 500 Index fell 6.24% in the quarter and advanced 5.37% (dividends included) for the nine months through September. Fears of rising inflation, higher interest rates,…