ZF News and Press, Virtus Total Return Fund Inc. From 07/16/21

One of the biggest challenges an investor faces right now is what to do with the US stock market. It is expensive, but the US government and the Fed seem willing to do anything to keep the market from crashing. What has previously happened to the US stock market when US inflation ...

The current trailing US EV/EBITDA at 17.2x is very high compared to its 10x average since 1990. This gives most value investors pause, but momentum investors are following this trend. Any investor who believes in the concept of reversion to the mean will be terrified by how clearly ov...

The likelihood of 7% GDP growth (best since 1984) or even 8% (best since 1951) this year is fantastic. But there is increasing evidence that this is a “K”-shaped recovery, with the wealthy reaping stock market and real estate rewards while many small businesses have gone...

The best news last week was the continuing decline in global bond yields, including the 10-year Treasury rate falling below 1.4% last Tuesday. If and when the Fed decides to raise key short-term interest rates, I don’t think they will be able to raise rates by much, since the f...

On average, stocks in “value” funds have materially lower price/earnings ratios than “growth” funds, the justification for the latter’s higher P/E being that they produce higher earnings. They also appear to be more predictable. Most of the US and mu...

This market has been like a roller coaster since Memorial Day. The sector rotation has been the biggest churn. The biggest concern at the moment for longer-term investors, and in particular retirees, is the possibility of higher inflation on the horizon. The housing market, the jo...

Strategas President Nicholas Bohnsack breaks down the recent move in Treasury rates before getting into a few 2H21 and 2022 outlook items. While he remains bullish on equities, he says he wouldn’t be surprised to see some volatility on the horizon. The organic growth driver...

The Department of Labor’s latest report on jobless claims came in higher than expectations at 373,000, a 2,000 increase from the prior week's revised level. Continuing claims were essentially unchanged at 3.3 million. Getting the economy back to its pre-recession employment...

The S&P 500 has set seven all-time record highs in a row - the longest streak since 1997. Last Friday also brought new highs to the once-struggling NASDAQ and Dow Industrials. For companies in the S&P 500, analysts now expect second-quarter profits to come in 64% better than t...

During much of last quarter, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model indicated an annual rate over 10% for the second quarter, but last Friday, they downgraded their estimate to the lowest number we’ve seen since the quarter began - an annual pace of just 7.8%, down from +8.6% on Jul...