Market Trends to Watch The investment world is like the weather: constantly changing. Financial vehicles are tweaked and improved upon, particularly when there are changes to tax law or compliance rules. The world of finance is fluid, and so are we. As our lives evolve, it’s important to review and sometimes make adjustments to our…

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What’s New in Indexing? Index mutual funds are investment vehicles comprising stocks from a wide variety of companies and track the performance of a specific index, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Investors are able to spread their assets across many different investments with the convenience of one fund, which can help protect them…

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What’s Up With the Markets? Anyone who followed the often-used investment adage, “Sell in May and go away,” is likely pleased with their decision after the markets struggled in the month of August.1 While recent market events may seem dramatic, August is historically the weakest month of the year for U.S. equities.2 By mid-August this year,…

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What Is The Beige Book? The Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) evaluates a plethora of factors before making any monetary policy decisions at meetings, which generally take place eight times a year. One source that helps inform their policy decisions is the “Beige Book,” which is the informal name for the FOMC’s “Summary…

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2019 Midyear Outlook Kiplinger recently noted that the U.S. stock market appeared more resilient than ever, having bounced back from a devastating end of 2018. Employment remains relatively steady, inflation flat and the Fed has indicated reticence to increasing interest rates through the end of the year. In fact, the only headwinds for the rest…

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Bull Market Turns 10   March 9, 2019, marked the 10th anniversary of the current bull market, the longest-running in U.S. history. In that decade, the market more than quadrupled, and when you factor in dividends, it’s up fivefold.1   The short-term spikes over the past few years coupled with corporate share buybacks have served…

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2019 Market Prognostications: What the Experts Say  By the end of 2018, not one of the eight asset categories tracked by Ned Davis Research was on track to post a return greater than 5 percent. Since it’s common for the market to yield at least some “winners” and “losers” among asset classes each year, this…

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Where U.S. Economics Stand Globally From the beginning, President Donald Trump’s economic policies have intended to put “America first.” Since the ultimate goal of such policies is to strengthen America’s economic growth, solve for domestic issues and make the nation more secure, it’s worth a review of how well policy changes are working toward those…

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Real Estate Update What a difference a decade makes. After the real estate debacle of the Great Recession, home prices are now near record highs in many markets with mortgage default and foreclosure rates at near record lows, according to the National Association of Realtors, or NAR.1 However, Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, says some…

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