The toasty temperatures and lengthy days of June, July and August have long been called the Dog Days of Summer.  While the summer months usually mark a slow period for Wall Street and the financial markets, the business newswires have been anything but quiet.

Between political concerns at home and volatility abroad, the market continues to keep investors on their toes.  Nowhere was this more apparent than in Britain’s surprise decision to part ways with the European Union, resulting not only in the disappearance of trillions of dollars from global capital markets, but also, and more dangerously, the appearance of nearly as many breathless “Brexit” headlines.

In the late days of this past June, even the most optimistic observer could be forgiven for believing that the sky was falling. And while the market went on to regain the ground it gave up—and then some—the question now looms: with instability potentially lurking in the next news cycle, what should you do?

In a word: you should go on vacation and enjoy the summer months, even if the market refuses to follow suit. In times like these, filled to the brim with short-term uncertainty, we believe that our firm’s careful, disciplined, and emphatically long-term investment outlook is more important than ever—and that, while all investors look at current events, great investors strive to look through them. So whether this letter finds you at your desk or your dock, rest assured: our team here at Tufton Capital remains hard at work on your behalf…Dog Days of Summer be darned!

We begin this edition of Tufton Viewpoint with our firm’s outlook for the economy and financial markets beginning on page two.  As you’ll read in our investment analyses throughout Viewpoint, we continue to be cautious but still positive on the equity markets even as we approach new highs for the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes.  And while we anticipate a slightly positive second half of 2016 for equities, we anticipate another period of volatility in getting there.

Every four years, politics and finance converge as Americans elect a president and investors attempt to forecast how the outcome will affect their portfolios.  Our article on page four, “Trump vs. Clinton:  Who is Better for the Markets”, concludes that the uncertainty surrounding the outcome may have a larger short-term impact on the financial markets than who ultimately wins.

We hope that you find these and the other articles throughout Tufton Viewpoint interesting and thought- provoking and encourage you to reach out to our financial team to discuss any of these topics in more detail.  All of us at Tufton Capital wish you and your families an enjoyable rest of the summer, and we sincerely thank you for your continued support!

Chad Meyer, CFA

President