2025 3rd Quarter Investment Management
Major U.S. Stock Indices Technology continued to reshape the investment landscape, while consumers displayed impressive stamina, helping push the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to fresh highs — driven by the “Magnificent 7” tech giants, which now account for roughly 35% of the S&P index. Encouragingly, the rally stretched beyond the familiar tech giants. Small and mid-cap […]
2025 2nd Quarter Investment Management
March Winds and April Showers Bring Forth May Flowers The S&P 500 was up 6.15% in May and followed that with an increase of 5.1% in June, close to its all-time high. It ended the quarter up 10.94% and 6.20% for the first two quarters of 2025. Big is still better, as the small cap […]
2025 1st Quarter Investment Management
Celebrating Our Team We’re thrilled to announce two impressive achievements within our team this quarter! These achievements represent exciting new chapters in their professional journeys. We are fortunate to have them on our team. Congratulations to Kim on her well-deserved promotion to Senior Client Service Associate—her dedication to our clients and exceptional operational skills have […]
2024 4th Quarter Investment Management
Stocks: Long term Investors Come out on Top It has been a wonderful two-year stretch for U.S. stocks. The S&P 500 index just delivered the best two-year calendar stretch since 1998. The index returned 25.02% in 2024, following a 26.29% advance in 2023. The key is to stay invested. Through all the headlines, the interest […]
Staying Invested During Volatile Markets
Economic Analysis by Jeff Platt and Kai Kramer You may have been watching the news and wondering about the recent market turbulence. We see several main factors affecting markets at this time: Unemployment rate increased from 4.1% to 4.3% in July Jobs growth totals 114,000 in July, coming in lower than the expected 175,000 […]
Historic Fed Rate Hikes (Again): Where Do We Go from Here?
At its March 2nd Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve board voted to raise short-term rates another 25 basis points—the second such increase this year. It was the ninth rate hike since March 22, 2022, in an all-out effort to tame rising inflation, which had surged to its highest levels in 40 years. […]
5 Tips to Stay Calm During a Market Downturn
Is the economy slowing down? How will rising interest rates impact my finances? Is a recession around the corner? Scroll through any newsfeed and you’ll hear these unsettling questions. And while the headlines can be alarming, we remind our clients of the benefits of staying calm, cool, and collected—keeping their eyes off the headlines and […]
How Market Cycles Can Impact Retirement
Markets go up. Markets go down. But no one can predict when, how, why, or for how long. Ups and downs are par for the investing course, but market cycles can have a greater impact on those nearing or in retirement than those in their accumulation years. That’s because in retirement you simply have less […]
Is the 60/40 Portfolio Allocation too Risky Now?
For over seven decades, the 60/40 portfolio allocation has been the stalwart strategy of retirement planners with a high degree of success until recently. More recently, the tried and true portfolio mix has come under pressure, mounting uncharacteristic losses that may indicate it has lost its luster. What has changed for the 60/40 allocation, and has […]
How Rising Interest Rates Could Impact Your Finances
As expected, the Federal Reserve is holding firm to its policy of hiking short-term rates in an effort to cool inflationary pressures. Generally, these small, incremental rate increases don’t immediately impact consumers. The fed rate is the rate the Treasury charges banks for the use of money overnight. When the Fed raises its short-term rate, […]