Commentary

Market Commentary: Second Quarter Key Events To Know; Future Growth Expectations Are Mixed

The world is about halfway back to normal.

The Economist developed the Global Normalcy Index (GNI) to measure the post-pandemic return to normal. In March 2020, the GNI was 35 overall, with 100 being the normal pre-pandemic level. At the end of the second quarter, the worldwide GNI was 66, or about halfway back to normal.

Market Commentary: Home Sales Dip, Wages Rise as June Jobs Report Looms

Market Commentary: Higher-Than-Expected Inflation Rates Cause Consumer Spending to Slow; Fed Adjusts Forecasts For Future Hikes

It’s transitory. It’s not transitory. It’s transitory. It’s not transitory.

Media analysts were plucking the inflation daisy petals last week. On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Consumer Price Index Summary, which showed prices were up 5 percent year-to-year.

Market Commentary: Amid Hiring Challenges, Hourly Earnings Rise, Some Unemployment Benefits Cut
Payrolls rose last month but below projections. New jobs are being added, but at a slower pace than hoped for. Unemployment went down. Though vaccines have helped bring COVID-19 under control, the economic recovery may take a bit longer. Our update tunes you into the discussion.

Are we at a tipping point?One side effect of the pandemic was a collapse in demand for oil, which led to “the largest revision to the value of the oil industry’s assets in at least a decade,” reported Collin Eaton and Sarah McFarlane of The Wall Street Journal.Last week brought another reckoning for big oil […]

What do markets hate?

They hate uncertainty, and recently there has been plenty of it. Some of the questions plaguing economists and pundits include…

“We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it’s grand and great.”
–Lucy Maude Montgomery, Author

Uncle Inflation is here. Will he overstay his welcome?

Weekly Market Commentary May 10, 2021-No one knows how the COVID-19 pandemic will be remembered over time, but it appears to have influenced the way people think about money in some significant ways. An April 2021 Bank of America survey reported:

• 81 percent of participants saved money, that would normally be spent on entertainment, dining, and travel, and set it aside in emergency, savings, and other types of accounts.
• 46 percent used pandemic downtime to put their finances in order.
• 44 percent said their risk tolerance changed: 23 percent became more aggressive and 21 percent more cautious.

If the pandemic has changed your thinking, let’s review your financial plan and align it with your current circumstances and thinking.