ZF News and Press, Virtus Total Return Fund Inc. From 08/03/21

A marked fall in business optimism in July hints that companies could become reticent to expand capacity while the pandemic continues to hit supply chains. Output growth continued to run behind the growth of new orders for a fifth straight month, meaning backlogs of work rose sharply ...

While it did not get a lot of attention, Congress failed to increase the debt ceiling this past weekend. We have been told many, many times that, if they failed to increase the debt ceiling in the past, it would have serious negative repercussions for financial markets. It seems w...

The Commerce Department announced that sales of new homes declined 6.6% in June to an annual pace of 676,000, which is a post-pandemic monthly low. May’s new home sales were revised lower to an annual pace of 724,000, down from 769,000 previously reported. Durable goods orders ...

We see China’s regulatory crackdown that recently rattled markets likely to moderate, alongside a dovish shift in macro policy, for the near term. The Federal Reserve noted further progress in the economy as expected; we see a tapering of asset purchases unlikely to start befor...

Most of the major asset classes continued to rise in July, led by US real estate investment trusts (REITs). US equities continued trending higher. The bull run also persisted for the Global Market Index (GMI) in July. For further details see: Major Asset Classes: July 20...

There were stellar earnings reports last week, but the market was expecting those and sent shares of many of those companies lower. Federal Reserve Chair Powell spoke mid-week, and the market passed on its usual fireworks in response. While there has not been a 5% decline in marke...

Stocks are expensive, and people aren’t buying because they want to but rather because they feel like they have to. When people say they are panicking into “the market”, what they really mean is they are panicking out of bank deposits or other safe assets. This pa...

Strategas Policy expert Dan Clifton takes us through the packed calendar for 2H21 in Washington. Dan hits on outlook and ramifications for infrastructure spend, tax hikes, inflation, debt ceiling, and more. More Americans are now worried about inflation than unemployment - a sea c...

The second quarter of 2020 saw the lowest year-on-year contraction on record. It was only to be expected, then, that the Q2 2021 number was going to outshine any period in recent history. The 12.2% gain from the same quarter in 2020 was indeed the fastest rate of growth since 1950. Wi...

Many fallacies are continually being propagated by the media about Covid's affect upon the market, as well as the Fed's impact upon the same. The market is still "destined" to rally to 4600SPX in 2021. The path to 4600SPX will likely be decided in the coming week. For furthe...