I hope you all are well, and that spring is springing in your neighborhood.  Asheville is coming along in its recovery.  Except for those hard-hit flooded areas of the region, things are mostly back to normal. What’s not normal were the market drops on Thursday and Friday. Across those two days, the S&P 500 dropped [...]

As you are likely aware, the market is down roughly 10% from recent highs. While corrections such as these are not uncommon (we get one per year on average), this one seems worse because it is linked to the heated rhetoric about U.S. trade policies, deficits, and tariffs. It is important to understand that if [...]

Spring is upon us, and I hope you all are well.   Asheville’s recovery continues although the progress is quite variable. Last fall’s storm was primarily a wind/tree event for some, a devasting flooding event for others.  Those communities that experienced flooding will take much longer to recover.  Thanks to all of you who have checked [...]

I hope you are all well.  Fall is in the air in Asheville with some nights cool enough to leave the windows open. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to begin a series of rate cuts when their meeting concludes on Wednesday. There is still debate among the talking heads about whether the cut will [...]

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 [...]