The US economy had a tumultuous year in 2020, to say the least, and after rebounding strongly in the third quarter, the holiday surge in COVID-19 cases increased the risk that the economy may stumble heading into the new year. The sharp increase in new COVID-19 cases led to additional curbs on activity to contain [...]
US payrolls grew month over month in January following a brief dip into negative territory in December. Peering under the hood, though, this report did little to dispel the notion that the labor market’s recovery has been stalling out, and likely bolsters calls for additional fiscal stimulus. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its [...]
Stocks got off to a nice start in 2021, until the late January selloff, as everyone got GameStop fever. Should bulls worry about what a down January might mean for the rest of 2021? There’s an old adage on Wall Street that suggests, “As goes January, so goes the year.” This was first discussed in [...]
“In the short term, the market is a popularity contest. In the long term, the market is a weighing machine.” -Warren Buffett What happened with Game Stop? The incredible action from some of the most heavily shorted names has investors everywhere wondering what it all means? GameStop (GME) specifically has taken the country’s imagination by [...]
Over the years, people have confessed to me the financial planning mistakes they've made. From cashing out retirement accounts to buying too much on credit... and everything in between. You can hear the regret in their voice. While we can never reverse history and take back those financial mistakes, we do have the opportunity [...]
2020 was an extraordinary year for the Federal Reserve (Fed). The Fed responded swiftly and decisively to the rapidly accelerating financial and economic uncertainty brought on by efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The current Fed was helped by precedents and policies created during the 2008-09 recession, but also went beyond them to address the [...]
Can I Defer and Lower My Taxes with a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund? Recently, we learned that a Lebron James rookie card sold for $1,600,000! Assuming the owner paid $1 for the card, that’s a big windfall! But that could also be a large tax liability. Well, maybe not. Depending on the decisions of the [...]
Solid holiday shopping season. Holiday sales grew 3%, beating forecasts for a 2.4% increase according to MasterCard’s SpendingPulse. Online sales rose 49% year over year. These results were impressive for a recessionary period—the comparable figure dropped 3.5% in 2008—and highlight the resiliency of the US consumer and benefits of stimulus. Daily Insights Stocks open higher [...]
“MORE THAN MOST YEARS, it’s hard to look ahead to the next year, to 2021, without looking back at 2020. A global pandemic, a massive economic collapse, a bear market, a surprisingly sharp reversal, a hotly contested election where passions ran high, the impact of lockdowns—it was an unusual year of extraordinary challenges. In [...]
The November reading for the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the most well-known measure of inflation, was released Thursday, December 12, and while both the headline and “core” readings (excluding food and energy) came in slightly higher than the Bloomberg-surveyed economists’ consensus, core inflation remains tame at 1.6% over the trailing year. Inflation is likely to [...]
