I hope you are all well and enjoying the summer. Last week, the market (S&P 500) decided to have a bit of a tantrum.  The prior week, the market began a downward move on the back of declines in large-cap, technology stocks. Then last Monday, we woke up to the Japanese market (the Nikkei) dropping [...]

Last week, both the Dow and the S&P 500 hit new all-time highs. The Dow ended the day Friday just above the very large, very round number of 40,000.  Such highs typically generate a lot of headlines and in turn client questions. Typical questions include: how can the market be so high – just look [...]

I hope you are all well and enjoying springtime. The market hit all-time highs at the end of March and since then has traded lower, reaching a decline of roughly 5.5% last week. This morning the market is down again, although still higher than last week’s low. The move this morning is the result of [...]

I hope you are all well and enjoying a beautiful spring. Asheville is blooming and the longer and warmer days are a welcome change to the gray, rainy winter. Over the past year, the news of several bank failures and other banks requiring capital injections have surfaced memories of the 2008/09 financial crisis. That’s not [...]

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday season, and the new year is off to a great start. I know it’s been cold everywhere. Over the weekend, Asheville got its first snow of the season with low temperatures in the single digits. Brrrrrr! The market has been on a long road back up from the [...]

I hope you are all well and enjoying a great holiday season! One question/comment I consistently hear from clients relates to current events (government shutdowns, deficit spending, wars) and the worry that the market is heading toward a cliff.  I spend a lot of time scanning the horizon looking for coming cliffs. The market goes [...]

I hope you are well and enjoying a beautiful fall.  The colors here in Asheville are spectacular. The market was down again this week and has entered a correction.  (A correction is defined as being down 10% from recent highs.)  You have likely heard a variety of explanations – from the Congressional problems surrounding the [...]

I hope you all had a nice Labor Day holiday, and the end of your summer is going well. You have probably heard something like this exchange before: Question: What do you think the market is going to do over the next few months? Answer: It’s going to go up and down. Sure, that kind [...]

I hope you are all enjoying your summer. Travel seems to be back on the agenda for many clients I have spoken with recently, another great sign of the fading effects of the pandemic. As I have discussed in other writings, the market downturn that began in early 2022 has been remarkable in its length. [...]

I hope you are all well and enjoying the spring. Asheville is getting a fair amount of those April showers and I’m ready for May’s sunshine. Last December, I wrote a letter about green hydrogen and prefaced my comments by saying I’m not taking sides in an argument about climate science.  Ditto for this letter.  [...]