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Today, the US economy broke a record for the longest expansion in history. The last recession ended in June 2009, so the US economy is now in its 121st month of growth. With this record in place, the drumbeat of pundits predicting the next recession is likely to increase. And with it come questions from [...]
It’s amazing how quickly sentiment can change. And the change from last December shows the importance of focusing on data and not sentiment. During last fall’s downturn, it seemed that everywhere you looked, people were talking about a global slowdown and a coming recession in the United States. Pessimism abounded, yet much of the data [...]
Over the past week, volatility picked up in response to the trade deal with China (or lack thereof). For much of this year, we’ve expected the trade deal to go through and for news related to China to fade from the front page of the papers. However, that all changed and President Trump is back [...]
As you know from your monthly and tax statements, our firm uses Fidelity Investments as the custodian of your assets. Recently, Fidelity implemented an SEC policy wherein a “trusted contact” is listed alongside the account owner. You may have recently received an email that looks like this. http://www.whiteoakfinancialmanagement.com/.... The purpose of this policy is to [...]
The New Year is shaping up quite nicely. The market is up roughly 18% from the December lows, although not back to the all-time highs from early October. As I said in several emails, I think the market reaction to events late last year was overblown. Likewise, I think the January/February recovery is not telling [...]
Historically, December is the best-performing month for the S&P 500. However this year, it looks like December is playing the role of the Grinch and leaving us all with a big lump of coal in our stockings! In addition, this year (2018) is shaping up to be a down year for the markets and not [...]
A persistent comment/question I hear from clients and others relates to the market’s recent volatility….up 300…down 200…up 175…and so forth. You may remember that following the 2016 election and for much of 2017 there was very little volatility. During that time, I tried to remind people that volatility was not dead…that it would come back. [...]
The market’s recent volatility has many wondering whether the moves higher we enjoyed over the past couple of years can be maintained. Common questions include: “What happens when the benefits of the tax cuts go away?” “What happens if earnings growth slows?” As I did in my last email, I’d like to share a short article from [...]
Last week was another one of those weeks when downward moves in the market brought back those lingering thoughts of Is this the start of 2008 all over again? I think the answer is no. One of the market analysts that I follow particularly closely (because he is right so much of the time) is Richard Bernstein [...]
As you may have noticed over the last week, interest rates are moving higher. It began with the Federal Reserve raising the level for its target benchmark to 2.00%-2.25%. This is the third rate hike by the Fed this year. They also signaled rates may rise again in December. Then over the last few days, [...]
