Financial

The 10-year Treasury ended last week at 3.38 percent—below its recent high of 3.48    percent but still well above its November lows.

Equity prices pushed higher in the first week of the new year. Read more now.

Stephanie Griffin of Camden has joined Allen Insurance and Financial as a receptionist in the company’s Camden office.

A native of Appleton, Griffin is attending the University of Maine in Augusta, working toward a bachelor’s degree in public administration; in addition, she expects to earn a certificate in human resource management from UMA in December.

Customer service has been a focus throughout her working life, Griffin said, which makes her position at Allen Insurance and Financial a good fit.

“Meeting new people is the best part of my job,” she said. “In Camden, we are very lucky to have a variety of people from all over the world. It is always interesting to hear their stories. At work, I get to be a small part of so many people’s lives.”

Outside of work, Griffin enjoys spending time with her large extended family as well as spending time reading, baking and enjoying the Maine outdoors.

Equity markets, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, closed out the year with a nominal gain; the holiday week was characterized by low volumes. Read more now.

Equity markets gained ground on the holiday shortened week, with the S&P 500 Index gaining more than 1 percent. Read more now.

A “Santa Claus” rally brought modest gains to equity markets last week; the S&P 500 was up 0.31 percent. Read more now.

A surge last Friday pushed markets into decidedly positive territory, and most major indices gained more than 1 percent on the week. Read more now.

It was a quiet week for equity markets due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Large-cap stocks drifted lower in slow trading, while small-cap and technology stocks gained some ground. Read more now in this week’s Market Update.

With the 10-year Treasury at 2.937 percent late last week, we’ve seen a considerable selloff—yields are  up from their recent low of 2.385 percent a little more than a month ago. Read more now.

A poor earnings forecast from technology giant Cisco and signs of accelerating inflation in China helped push the equity markets lower last week.

Sector breadth was also poor, as nine out of 10 S&P 500 sectors lost ground. Energy was the only area of growth, buoyed by elevated oil prices.  Read more now.

The Federal Reserve confirmed last week that short-end rates will be low for some time.

With the purchase of $600 billion in Treasuries through the middle of next year, coupled with $300 billion in mortgage runoffs, the Fed is telling us that rates need to be lower.

Read more in our Weekly Market Update.