Category: Weekly Investment Update

Stocks lost ground for the week, just the second week in the last ten to close lower. Declines in technology stocks and trade fears lead the indexes to lower. Fixed income yields rose on positive economic data. These mildly interesting facts should mean little to investors, who are intent on executing their plans for decades […]

The S&P 500 rose to a new all-time high of 2,914.04 in the middle of the final week of August. The index finished the month 3.03% higher. August was the fifth month in a row during which the index closed higher and, since the end of the first quarter, the price gain is 9.87% higher. […]

How can one manage their retirement assets so as to be confident of not running them dry?  That is a tough challenge faced by all retirees.  Morningstar columnist Christine Benz tackled the problem in the July 2018 issue of AAII Journal (“For Bucket Portfolios, the Devil is in the Details”). Step one is to determine […]

There will be a two-week break in the Weekly Update. We will resume on Tuesday, September 4th. After five straight weekly gains, the S&P 500 took a vacation and closed 0.25% lower last week. Treasury yields drifted lower during the week. The 2-year and 10-year Treasury notes finished the week yielding 2.60% and 2.86% respectively. […]

Stocks were higher again last week, for the 5th straight week in a row. The S&P 500 finished the week just 0.87% under its all-time high while the NASDAQ set new highs. Positive earnings reports have supported the strength in the S&P 500 with 75% of reporting companies in the index beating analysts’ estimates. The […]

The S&P 500 index was up for the fourth week in a row, closing +0.61% for the week and +3.70% for the four weeks combined. The gains have been supported by good earnings and revenue growth even though these have been accompanied by cautious guidance due to the uncertainty over the near-term effects of trade […]

Earnings season is in full swing and reports to date confirm full year earnings for the S&P 500 will be nearly $160 which places the PE for the index at 17.5. This week will be the heaviest in the earnings reporting season. Traders will be looking at management guidance which has so far been reassuring. […]

Short-term Treasury yields moved higher last week as the 2-year rose 4 basis points to 2.58%. The 10-year rose early but was off late in the week to finish flat 2.83%. Although the 2 year/10-year spread narrowed to 25 basis points, a level not seen since August 2007, renewed concerns about inversion, a signal of […]

Tariffs, first announced in March, were levied last week and reporters announced the beginning of a U.S. trade war. U.S. stock indexes, however, shrugged off the noise. The S&P 500 finished the week up 1.52% and cooler heads are talking of a trade dispute, refusing to elevate the latest tariff announcements to the level of […]

Planning does not get easier in the distribution phases of a plan. There is not sufficient room in this brief to cover all of the issues involved. Step #6 points to just a few of the planning issues in a very broad way. The details in a personal financial plan can best be addressed by […]