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“Revive the A shares, benefit the people; revive the A shares, benefit the people.” - A required chant from last Sunday’s graduation ceremony at China’s prestigious Tsinghua University, referring to shares that trade on the Shanghai stock exchange. Ka-put? To kick off this edition of our monthly Guest EVA, I thought I’d share some good news: This is not another nauseating essay about Greece! The more sobering message is that it is about the possible expiration of an extraordinarily market friendly device—the legendary “put”, which has undergirded financial markets in recent years. Today’s Guest EVA highlights the work of two extremely savvy females on this topic, following up on my theme from last month that women often are more rational when it comes to investing than men. The first note is from our partner firm GaveKal’s Joyce Poon. Over the years, I’ve become a big fan of her consistently well-reasoned insights into Asian markets, particularly China. As you may have noticed, there has been some rather interesting market action in China recently. Read More

“Never think that lack of variability is stability. Don’t confuse lack of volatility with stability, ever.” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb   CALM BEFORE THE VOLATILITY STORM? Tyler Hay I wrote this edition of the Evergreen Virtual Advisor (EVA) from my hotel room in Laguna Beach, California, looking out at the serene Pacific Ocean. The setting seemed very appropriate considering the soothing comments I heard a few nights ago at Schwab’s EXPLORE conference from Liz Ann Sonder, Chief Investment Strategist. Ever since the stormy summer of 2011, US stock market investors have been riding a gentle but persistent wave that has carried them to the ultimate financial promised land of high returns and low volatility. Read More

Slight positive revision to Q1 GDP, which is still negative at -0.2%, but an improvement from -0.7%. Current expectations are calling for 2.2% for the full year with quarterly consensus estimates at 2.5%, 3.0%, and 3.0% for Q2, Q3, and Q4 respectively. Consumption was the largest positive revision, and based… Read More

Weak release today for durable goods orders in May (April revised downward as well). This was released right after data started to finally look a bit healthier for the US economy, which highlights the world we live in with continued sluggish growth. Read More