April

April is upon us and the fourth month is, historically, kind to equities. Over the past 20 years, the S&P 500 has risen in 75 percent of those Aprils, posting an average gain of 1.7 percent. That ties April with March for the best average monthly performance by the S&P 500. The Gainers At...

For all the fanfare surrounding the purported bullishness of stocks in months such as January and December, April can be quite kind to equities. In fact, the S&P 500 has averaged an April return of 2 percent, making the fourth month of the year the best for the benchmark U.S. equity gauge,...

For a second consecutive month, U.S. Retail sales were disappointing as total sales in May rose by just 0.3 percent. The level was below the consensus estimate for an increase of 0.5 percent and was also below April’s revised level of 0.5 percent (from 0.1 percent). Last six month...