Weekly Market Commentary

The Markets The United States stock market changed course. Last week, the strength of the United States economy slowed investors’ roll. Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell told business leaders in Dallas, Texas, that the performance of the United States economy has been “remarkably good,” better than any major economy in the world, which gives the Fed “the ability to approach our decisions c...

Weekly Market Commentary November 11, 2024 The Markets Stock markets celebrated the results of the presidential election. Bond markets were less enthusiastic. Last week, United States stock markets rallied, and the U.S. dollar gained against other currencies, following the presidential election. The CBOE Volatility Index, Wall Street’s Fear gauge, also moved lower after concerns about a long wait...

Weekly Market Commentary November 04, 2024 The Markets Are we witnessing an historic event? For an airplane or a spacecraft, a soft landing occurs when the vehicle “touches the ground in a controlled and gradual way that does not damage it,” according to The Britannica Dictionary. For the American economy, a soft landing happens when the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to cool the economy an...

Financial markets appear to have pre-election jitters. The United States election is less than two weeks away. The candidates are neck and neck. The outcome remains uncertain. And expectations for volatility have been rising, with the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) finishing last week at 20.33. “When the VIX goes north of 20, Wall Street pays attention because that level signals heightened volatility...

Weekly Market Commentary October 21, 2024 The Markets Happy birthday! The bull market in stocks charged past its two-year birthday on October 12. “This unique bull market is still young relative to history and, for now, supported by relatively healthy breadth and broadening participation,” wrote Liz Ann Sonders and Kevin Gordon of Schwab. One factor in the U.S. stock market’s rise has been the Ame...

Weekly Market Commentary October 07, 2024 The Markets Living the realities of risk and reward. Asset allocation is important because it helps investors manage the risk and rewards of investing. In general, investments have different levels of risk and the potential return (or reward) for taking that level of risk is a higher return. For example, investing in stocks typically has greater risk than...

Weekly Market Commentary September 30, 2024 The Markets The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index hit a new all-time high last week. The S&P 500 has had quite a year. Despite a sharp downturn in August when investor confidence was ruffled by concerns about economic growth, the Index was up about 20 percent, year-to-date, at the end of last week. The gains were widespread with all sectors o...

Weekly Market Commentary September 23, 2024 The Markets Rates moved lower and stocks moved higher. In 2022, the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) began raising interest rates as it battled high rates of inflation. That year prices rose 8 percent, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. In 2023, prices increased more slowly (4.1 percent), but still advanced at a pace that was well above the Fed’...

Weekly Market Commentary September 16, 2024 The Markets There was a lot of good news last week! Inflation continued to trend lower. The Consumer Price Index showed that inflation was 2.5 percent year over year (yoy) in August. That’s lower than economists had expected, and a significant decline from July’s 2.9 percent. Food and energy prices have been falling faster than some other prices because...

The Markets Investing in September can be like biting into a jelly doughnut and finding boiled cabbage—full of unwelcome surprises. “History suggests September is the worst month of the year in terms of stock-market performance,” reported Isabel Wang of Morningstar. The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index “has generated an average monthly decline of 1.2%...dating back to 1928, according to D...