A Wild Ride By Theresa Gusman, Chief Investment Officer | Download the PDF Overview It’s been a wild ride – and like the terminus of a dizzying, high-speed roller coaster, we’re right back where we started. After hitting an all-time high in mid-February, plunging 34% from its peak, bouncing in late March, and advancing 20.5% […]
By Holly Testa | Download the PDF Economic Overview Below is our compilation of the economic views expressed by First Affirmative’s key data providers. You may click on the links provided in the footnotes to access the complete report. “The COVID-19 shock altered the course of the global economy and ravaged financial markets, prompting policymakers to […]
By Holly Testa | Download the PDF 2020 Proxy Voting Season? Better Than Expected! Investors and corporations have good reason to be distracted from routine events such as annual shareholder meetings this year. We were skeptical that participants in the process would prioritize their commitment to environmental, social, and governance issues, but we are happy to […]
Sustainable and Impact Investing in the New World By George R. Gay | Download the PDF Many pundits discuss the “New Normal” that will arise when the pandemic ends and the economy recovers. For many in the U.S. and for most in the developing world, the “Old Normal” was not that great. The “Next Normal” will […]
By Holly Testa | Download the PDF The traumatic impacts of the ongoing COVID- 19 outbreak are necessarily focusing attention to immediate concerns at the expense of just about everything else. Some thoughts on the challenges and opportunities we see as we navigate the changing day-to-day landscape: Our Work Continues The COVID-19 crisis will do much […]
Markets Respond to a Global “Time Out” By Theresa Gusman, Chief Investment Officer The US equity market was persistently hitting new highs following a 31.5% gain last year – until a few weeks ago. This surge drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average to an all-time high of 29,551 on February 12th. Then the bottom fell […]
“March Madness” Turns to March Sadness By Mel Miller, CFA®, Chief Economist | Download PDF As an economist, I rely on government and industry statistics to determine not only my analysis of the current economy but to formulate my forecast of the future direction of the economy. Tempering my investigation is the built-in lag time in […]
By Theresa Gusman and Mel Miller | Download the PDF We are going to try and answer the question of “What is an investor to do?” Going into 2020, the economy and the market seemed on reasonably stable ground. Expecting the record-breaking eleven plus years of economic expansion to continue, the stock market, as measured by […]
By Holly Testa | Download the PDF Proxy Voting Trends Our track record on proxy voting continues to contrast sharply with overall averages, as our proxy voting guidelines establish standards not typical within the mainstream investment community. We voted against over 40% of nominating committee board members due to lack of gender and racial diversity and […]
Buy on the Rumor, Sell on the News By Theresa Gusman, Chief Investment Officer | Download PDF US equities continue to hit new highs. A 9.1% fourth quarter surge propelled the S&P 500 to a 31.5% increase in 2019 – and the index continues to advance. A mixed start to 2019 yielded to strong fourth quarter […]
