Viewpoints

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The Market’s Response to Trump’s First 100 Days

As investment stewards, we at Manchester Capital seek to preserve, protect, and grow client assets given the prevailing market, economic, and political climates. We do not take political positions, believing that doing so could unduly influence our financial decision making. Instead, we focus solely on our mission of helping clients achieve their financial objectives. It is through this lens that we review the market’s response to the first 100 days of the second Trump Administration—beginning January 17th, the final market close before inauguration, and ending 100 days later with the market’s close April 30th. While the first 100 days is an arbitrary metric, it is instructive in understanding the market’s attitude toward the administration’s actions. Market Performance and Volatility During this 100 day period, there have been 78 trading days for the market. Using the S&P 500 as a market proxy, the market closed January 17th at 5,996.66, peaked February...

10.03.2023
Artificial Versus Human Intelligence

Artificial Versus Human Intelligence

It seems that Chatbots and Artificial Intelligence are invading every part of modern life. According to recent news reports, over 80% of Fortune 500 companies have adopted one of the new large language AI models.[1] Goldman Sachs estimates that AI adoption could enable a 1.5% increase in labor productivity resulting in an increase of 1.1% per year of Gross Domestic Product (GDP – the total value of all goods and services produced by the economy). Given that our GDP normally averages around 2.5%, a 1.1% addition to our average GDP could represent a 40% increase, significantly impacting corporate earnings and market valuations across the economy.[2] Certainly, AI models can organize, summarize, reconcile, and interpret labeled data beyond human capacity, but can they duplicate the more intangible aspects of human endeavors? These models increasingly mimic human behaviors and beg an intriguing question: are they more than just a better abacus that...