Quarterly Market Commentary

November 1, 2021

Third Quarter 2021

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary Stairway Partners is an SEC-registered Investment Advisor providing comprehensive investment advice and industry-leading portfolio management solutions. Our firm was created to provide institutions and individual investors with transparent and cost-effective stewardship of their assets. Our sophisticated investment capabilities and a steadfast commitment to the industry’s best practices…

July 3, 2021

Second Quarter 2021

April 3, 2021

First Quarter 2021

January 4, 2021

Fourth Quarter 2020

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary Resurgent Covid-19 infections led to another round of lockdowns in a number of locations, including parts of Europe and the UK. This weighed on economic activity and raised the specter of a second recession. China bucked this trend by reporting relatively strong fourth quarter GDP growth. In…

October 4, 2020

Third Quarter 2020

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary After the sharpest downturn on record in this year’s second quarter, the US economy rebounded fairly strongly in the third quarter. Despite the rapid growth in GDP during the third quarter, output was still 3.5% below its peak level in the fourth quarter of 2019. Because the…

July 4, 2020

Second Quarter 2020

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary In our first quarter Market & Economic Perspective piece, we stated that the economic impact of the coronavirus would not be seen until the second quarter. Now that much of the data are available, we saw that the US suffered the swiftest start to a recession ever,…

April 4, 2020

First Quarter 2020

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary Although the Coronavirus (COVID-19) began in China in late 2019, its rapid spread and the resulting government lock-down measures to combat the virus did not materially affect the global economy until the end of the first quarter. The true economic impact of COVID-19 will not be seen…

January 4, 2020

Fourth Quarter 2019

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary The US economy remained on an upward trajectory in 2019. The current decade-long recovery since the global financial crisis is a record for economic expansions in the US. Fourth-quarter GDP growth was not overly strong, at a bit over 2%, due to a somewhat slower increase in…

October 4, 2019

Third Quarter 2019

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary Real GDP growth in the US slowed again in the third quarter, falling to just below 2.0%. This slowing can be at least partially attributed to the disappearance of the one-off tax cut stimulus. In addition, agriculture and manufacturing suffered from a lack of progress in settling…

July 4, 2019

Second Quarter 2019

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary GDP growth in the US slowed again in the second quarter, although it remained above 2.0%. This slowing can be at least partially attributed to the disappearance of the one-off tax cut stimulus. In addition, agriculture and manufacturing suffered from a lack of progress in settling the…

April 4, 2019

First Quarter 2019

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary GDP growth in the US remained at a healthy level of 3.0% or better during both the fourth quarter of 2018 (data release was delayed due to the government shutdown) and the first quarter of 2019. As a result, the unemployment rate has stayed below 4.0% thus…

January 5, 2019

Fourth Quarter 2018

Global Market and Economic Perspective Global Economic Commentary Normally, we would have the fourth quarter GDP numbers for the US when issuing this report. However, these have not been normal times. The lengthy US government shutdown that began a few days before Christmas has meant delays in releasing economic reports and data, including GDP. Although…