The September swoon continued last week, as stocks sold off hard after the Fed’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged. This type of seasonal weakness shouldn’t be a surprise. We’ve been discussing the potential for August and September volatility for a while now. It’s important to rem …
Chinese GDP grew 2.3% in 2020, making it the only major economy to grow last year. In the fourth quarter, the Chinese economy grew 6.5% as China continued to gain ground on the U.S. economy. The growth was led by strong performance in industrial production, which rose 7.3% in December, comp …
The signs of an economic slowdown continue. Initial jobless claims, which are released weekly, spiked to 965,000 last week. Claims increased by 181,000 and marked the highest weekly total since mid-August. Continuing claims increased 199,000, indicating those losing work are not finding new …
The vivid pictures and appalling actions in Washington, D.C., Wednesday captured the attention of the globe, but not the interest of markets. The Democratic sweep in the Georgia Senate races didn’t attract a lot of interest from investors either. Neither were markets fazed by the first loss …
By Michael Gold, CFP®, MBA Founder & CEO – Wealth Advisor People use the word, “strategy” in different ways, but it generally refers to a specific approach to solving a problem. An investor who defines a strategy makes a conscious decision to consider only opportunities that fit the ove …
It’s no secret that many people do not keep their New Year’s resolutions. Every year around this time, gym memberships go up and personal planners fly off the shelves. A few weeks later, the planner gets left on the train and the gym, well, it’s just so far out of the way! New Year’s resolu …
The S&P 500 wrapped up a surprising year with another strong week. The index of large-cap stocks, including dividends, climbed 1.5% and finished 18.4% higher for the year. Figure 1 shows the performance of the S&P 500, ex-dividends, in 2020 and just how far stocks have roared back f …
