Year: 2018

Every week brings new developments that grab the attention of investors. Political and economic developments dominated headlines last week, and, in general, most investors focused on the positives. President Trump announced our withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear accord and renewed sanctions on that country’s oil exports, sending oil prices to…

The recent passage of tax reform has raised the expected level of S&P 500 earnings.  Looking forward, Price/Earnings ratios have declined on a forward or normalized earnings basis, thereby raising the upside potential of the S&P 500.  In simple terms, tax reform should benefit markets and provide opportunity for growth. …

Facebook is facing a reckoning in the court of public opinion for how the social media giant and its partners handle customer data. In the court of law, holding Facebook responsible for its actions has been quite a bit harder. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hauled in front of Congress…

Investor confidence of late has been dented but looks to be (generally) holding up.  This story may be one of rotation from sectors into areas that appear to have great opportunity.   U.S. equities gave back their sizeable January inflows, but flows into non-U.S. developed market and emerging market (EM) equities…

And how it relates to family and financial planning It is Masters time again. The 2018 Masters Tournament begins on April 5th, continuing an April tradition that started in 1934. Why is the Masters so special? Well, it starts because the tournament’s co-founder – Bobby Jones was one of the…

What happened at Orbitz? Reports from March 20th state that up to 880,000 payment card numbers and related information may have been exposed in a data breach. Orbitz, which is owned by Expedia, apparently had two different data disclosures. In the first disclosure, a hacker may have accessed customers’ personal…

While the Federal Reserve’s decisions certainly impact the US (and global) economy, it’s important to know that the Fed does not set economic policy. The Fed does, however, control monetary policy in an attempt to influence the direction of the US economy. Let’s explore the history of the Federal Reserve,…

Most people would like to see a gain of 21.6 percent on their annual statement. That was the annual return for the Standard & Poor (S&P) 500 Index during 2017. In general, U.S. stock indexes did quite well last year – and the year before, too. For instance, the S&P…

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a measure that has been characterized as the first major reform of the Internal Revenue Code in 31 years, received final approval from the House and the Senate on December 20, and was signed into law by President Trump two days later on December…

Friday’s bond market sell-off was likely precipitated by a strong non-farm payroll report for January which showed 200k new jobs as well as a positive December report.  Adding to inflation concerns was the report’s reading on wages, which grew at an annual 2.9% rate.  The Fed left interest rates unchanged…

As everyone knows, stocks went into a dramatic spiral on Monday, February 5th, as the DJIA plummeted almost 1,600 points, which was the biggest point decline in history. But right before the market closed, buyers charged back into the market and limited the damage – but the DJIA still lost…

Home Prices Healthy The S&P/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index for October 2017 showed home prices moving higher by an impressive 6.2% year-over-year. That’s the highest rate of growth since June 2014. Price hikes should moderate and settle in the 5.0%-5.5% growth range. This forecast is based on several leading industry…