Weekly Market Commentary October 23, 2023 The Markets Stay calm and consider the big picture. Today, investors have a myriad of worries that are creating tremendous uncertainty. A September Investopedia survey found investors are concerned about how their investments may be affected by: Inflation (59 percent), The upcoming election (52 percent), A possible recession, (51 percent) Higher interest r...

Weekly Market Commentary October 16, 2023 The Markets Markets were resilient. Last week, investors had a lot to process – geopolitics, inflation, consumer sentiment, the possibility of government shutdown – and markets were volatile. Toward the end of the week, some investors were reassured when earnings season kicked off with reports showing major banks posted stronger-than-expected profits durin...

Weekly Market Commentary October 09, 2023 The Markets Financial markets lost ground during the third quarter. While year-to-date returns for the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index remain above the historic average, which was 10.24 percent, including dividends, from 1973 to 2022, the rally in U.S. stocks stalled during the third quarter of 2023, reported Lewis Krauskopf, Ankika Biswas and Sh...

Weekly Market Commentary October 02, 2023 The Markets Inflation is slowing but consumers aren’t feeling it. In August, for the first time in two years, inflation (excluding volatile food and energy costs) dropped below four percent. Last week, one of the Federal Reserve (Fed)’s favored inflation measures – the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index – indicated that prices rose 3.9 per...

Weekly Market Commentary September 25, 2023 The Markets How high will they go? Just as the market anticipated, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) chose not to raise interest rates last week. However, Fed officials made it clear another rate increase might be necessary before the end of 2023 as continued economic strength, higher energy prices, robust consumer spending, and rising wag...

Weekly Market Commentary September 11, 2023 The Markets All the work, work, work. 2023 has been a remarkable year so far. It has, “confounded economists, humbled forecasters, and rewarded investors. Despite a rapid rise in interest rates, the U.S. economy continues to grow. Inflation has fallen – if not quite to desired levels – and stocks have entered a bull market, with the S&P 500 gaining 1...

Weekly Market Commentary September 05, 2023 The Markets Lowering inflation. If you’ve ever waited in traffic while the center section of a bridge lifts to allow ships and sailboats to pass underneath, you may have noticed the enormous counterweight that lowers as the bridge moves higher. When the boats have passed, the counterweight rises, and the bridge lowers back into place.   The Fed...

Weekly Market Commentary August 28, 2023 The Markets Becalmed. The Chinese government’s zero-COVID policy took the wind from the sails of its economy. When the government finally ended the policy earlier this year, many economists anticipated that pent-up consumer demand would refill China’s economic sails, lifting the global economy, reported Malcolm Scott of Bloomberg. Instead, China’s economy i...

Weekly Market Commentary August 21, 2023 The Markets Higher bond yields may be good for income investors – and not so good for stock markets. After more than a decade of near-zero interest rates, the “free money” era – a time when people and businesses could borrow money and repay it with very low (or no) interest – may be over. Last year, rising inflation caused the Fed to begin raising the feder...

Weekly Market Commentary August 14, 2023 The Markets Consumer sentiment is a lagging indicator. It’s also a contrarian indicator. After rising sharply in June and July, consumer sentiment leveled off this month. The preliminary August reading for the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index was 71.2. That’s slightly below July’s reading, although it’s up 22.3 percent year-over-year, and up...