Category: Weekly Investment Update

One of the greatest investors, economists and educators of all time began his lecture, Securities in an Insecure World, with the following statement: In the field of financial security, as limited to the problems of investment policy, I would say there are three kinds of threats or dangers that investors should recognize as possibly existing […]

Of the 420 S&P 500 companies which have reported Q2 earnings to date, 60% have reported revenues above analyst expectations and 73% have reported earnings above expectations. Earnings for the S&P 500 are on track to increase by 12.0% from the second quarter of 2016. The first estimate of Q2 GDP was a better than […]

To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, by failing to plan, you are planning to fail. Your vision of life for you, your family, your friends and community has many facets. Education, health, work, wealth and charity are examples of personal planning issues which require planning. Change is constant and as a result your vision will adjust to […]

You do not have to look very far to get financial planning and investment advice. In fact, you do not even have to be looking. Television, newspapers, friends, family members and people claiming to be financial professionals provide a steady flow of free, unsolicited financial advice. A financial advisor who urges you to act on […]

A kid, coming out of the store you are walking into, announces she just bought a candy bar and a stick of gum for $1.10; the candy bar costs $1.00 more than the piece of gum. Question:  How much did the gum cost? We are called on to perform quick calculations and make snap decisions […]

The S&P 500 finished the week at 2,425 and has not traded outside a range bounded by one-percent on either side of that level for the past 6 weeks. The S&P 500 has not had a 5% correction since February 11, 2016, seventeen months ago. Historically, the index has averaged three corrections of 5% or […]

Stephen Auth, Federated Investors’ Chief Investment Officer, Equities, recently confirmed his positive outlook for stocks. The sources of his optimism are: the economic backdrop is solid; credit and liquidity conditions remain good; Washington and the Fed will address the country’s fiscal and monetary problems in the coming months in a manner sufficient to support corporate […]

Some financial service providers are struggling to comply with the Department of Labor’s new Fiduciary Rule. The rule requires any financial services professional who provides retirement planning advice to raise their standard of operation to one of a fiduciary. The introduction of the rule created a good deal of turmoil among many in the traditional […]

Owning shares of stock is being part owner of a business. As part owner of a publicly traded corporation, your share of the company may be a tiny fraction of the whole but you are nevertheless part owner of the assets, revenues and earnings of the company. You own a portion of everything the corporation […]

Stocks, as measured by the S&P 500, would have been higher again last week if it had not been for the large cap tech stocks, this year’s market rally leaders. After year-to-date gains of 20% to 30%, the group took a breather Friday finishing with one day declines of three to four percent. Rather than […]