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July 1, 2021

by | Jul 1, 2021 | Quarterly Letters

Dear Client: Year-to-date returns for the major stock indices and the current bond and money market yields are as follows: IndexYTDDow Jones Industrial Average   12.73%S&P 500   14.41% Fixed Income Yields1 year5 year10 year30 yearMunicipals0.14%0.51%1.00%1.58%US Treasuries0.07%0.88%1.46%2.08% Fidelity Government Cash Reserves Money Market Fund0.01% Happy 4th of July!  As we again celebrate the birth of our nation, we would like to reflect on the strong first half of 2021 in the equity markets.  Any way you slice it, the equity markets are doing well as every sector of the S&P 500 is positive for the year.  If you are a holder of equities, you are generally pleased; every equity style, from value to growth to foreign, is performing.  The vaccines are working, and the virus is becoming less of an issue for equity markets with each passing day.  The American economy (as measured by GDP) is on pace for its best year-over-year growth since 1984, and pre-tax corporate profits are back to all-time highs.  American consumers and corporations are flush with cash, and the pent-up demand is unwinding into the economy.  Combine all of this with an asset-friendly Federal Reserve Bank committed to low interest rates, and you have higher stock prices and an economy ready to roar. As we often communicate, looking backward is always easy, evaluating the present can be challenging, and prognosticating the future is even more difficult.  As investors, we live in unusual times.  We have had a litany of unprecedented and rare events: from shutting down the economy, to enormous stimulus packages, to unemployment rising from 3% to 14% in weeks, to the Fed increasing the...