Category: Weekly Investment Update

Planning for accumulation is the initial stage of all but a few financial plans. This beginning phase in the decades-long process of accumulating wealth to provide for educational needs, housing, retirement and family support is a decades-long process. Accumulation strategies are also the basis for most personal finance writing. The distribution phase of a financial […]

Stocks rebounded from their summer correction which, to date bottomed in mid-August after a decline of around 6% (fall officially begins on September 23rd). The S&P 500 was up nearly one percent for the week, finishing about one-half percent under its all-time high of 3,025.86. The real action lately has been in the normally sleepy […]

Angela Malley returns this week with more tax-focused thoughts in, How to Avoid Early Withdrawal Penalties, available on our web site. The tax code includes some well-intended tax penalties for certain withdrawals from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The penalty is meant to encourage workers to postpone tapping into such balances until retirement or at […]

In the United States, there is not a single Treasury bond which currently pays more than 1.96%. The dividend yield on the S&P 500 currently exceeds the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond and those dividends will increase over time. The recent decline in interest rates means an increase in bond prices. In the month […]

Four-hundred fifty of the S&P 500 companies have reported second quarter earnings. To date, earnings were reported at a rate of 5.7% above estimates while aggregate revenue was 0.8% above expectations. Results relative to expectations will generally have an immediate impact on market prices and in the cases of individual companies may have long-term implications. […]

It is time again to start thinking about tax planning for the current tax year. Many financial decisions made during the year have already included a consideration of the impact on tax liability. Late summer is the best time to step back from the trees of the many on-the-fly calculations made throughout the year and […]

The cost of capital has been declining around the world. Interest rates are at or below zero in many countries. Nominal interest rates in the U.S. remain positive but our real interest rates (yield minus the rate of inflation) are at or below zero. The 10-Year Treasury, after a run up to over 3.20% last […]

Stocks dropped, taking the S&P 500 down over three percent for the week, as doubts about a near term continuation of what had already been a 20% rally this calendar year mounted. Continued weakness in stock prices is likely to be with us through the remainder of the summer with the correction totaling 5% to […]

With 44% of S&P 500 companies reporting, revenues and earnings have been a hodgepodge. FactSet revealed 61% of companies reported revenues above expectations and 77% of companies have posted earnings which beat expectations. However, do not forget that expectations have been lowered significantly beginning in late 2018 in anticipation of a 2019 recession which has […]

The S&P 500 experienced its first negative week in the month of July, finishing down 1.23%. The index is still up 18.74 year-to-date. To ease concerns that stocks have moved up too much, too soon, consider this: the index at 2,976.61 is up just 1.56% from last year’s September 20th high of 2,930.75 and has […]