Market Commentary

An Economy of Mixed Signals The Markets There is a lot of uncertainty in financial markets and markets hate uncertainty. In recent weeks, economic and financial market data have been telling different stories – and that makes it tough for investors to know where the United States economy is headed. Since stock markets move up […]

The Federal Reserve’s Ice Bucket Challenge… The Markets Remember a few years ago when people raised money for charity by challenging others to pour buckets of icy water over their heads? Last week, the Federal Reserve poured a bucket of ice water over the United States stock market. The Fed’s goal is to slow high […]

Weekly Market Commentary April 19, 2022 What happening with bonds and inflation? The Markets I want to take a moment to cover 2 topics that are playing out for all of us. First, many retired people are constantly told or read that they should be in bonds because they are safe. Well, are they really? […]

What happening with bonds and inflation? The Markets I want to take a moment to cover 2 topics that are playing out for all of us. First, many retired people are constantly told or read that they should be in bonds because they are safe. Well, are they really? At the end of the first […]

Market Wrap up 2021 The Markets 2021 was a plentiful kind of year. Everything seemed to move higher – from COVID-19 cases and vaccinations to economic growth and global stock markets. Everything except for optimism. As the year came to an end, a CBS News poll found that 40 percent of Americans felt 2021 was […]

Inflation Data Trends The Markets Inflation met expectations. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) last week, it showed that inflation was at levels last seen in 1982. In November, prices were up 0.8 percent month-to-month and 6.8 percent year-to-year. “It was the blowout, inflation number that everyone was expecting—and […]

Weekly Market Commentary October 6, 2021 September strikes again… The Markets If you look back over the last 20 years, September has been the least performing month for many of the years. This year, the S&P 500 dropped 4.8 percent in September. That wasn’t enough to wipe out gains from earlier in the third quarter, […]

Weekly Market Commentary September 28, 2021 We are in a headline driven market! The Markets Central banks have a lot of influence on investors, markets and economies. For the last year or so, the Federal Reserve has been purchasing $120 billion of bonds every month to ensure United States markets remained liquid and interest rates […]

Weekly Market Commentary September 8, 2021 The Economy versus Inflation and the Delta variant The Markets Stagflation isn’t trending, but it was mentioned in quite a few headlines last week. Stagflation is a blend of ‘stagnation’ and ‘inflation.’ It occurs when a country experiences slow economic growth along with high inflation and high unemployment. In […]

Weekly Market Commentary August 18, 2021 The Fed and Productivity Are we there yet? For months, investors have wondered when the Federal Reserve (Fed) might begin to “normalize” its policies, a process that will eventually lead to higher interest rates. Last week, a better-than-expected unemployment report – showing a gain of almost a million jobs […]