Published August 13, 2021
The stock market continues to trade in a relatively quiet manner waiting for the next piece of information that will provide a jolt to push stocks one direction or the other. While we wait, we take this opportunity to review a fundamental financial planning concept – the beauty of the Roth IRA. (more…)
Published August 6, 2021
Below is an article from Schwab on the connection between earnings and the stock market.
“In what shaped up to be a very impressive first half of the year for both the economy and stock market, stellar earnings growth has been a key ingredient. Coming off stronger-than-expected S&P 500 earnings growth of 53% (year over year) in the first quarter, second-quarter earnings are currently anticipated to grow by 78%, the highest since 2009. That is well higher than the initial consensus estimate of 65%. (more…)
Published July 30, 2021
One of the interesting features of the stock market over the past year has been the tremendous rise in companies going public. This is coming after a long period where companies seemed very much to prefer staying in private hands. That sentiment has changed dramatically and pretty quickly, giving investors a plethora of new companies to consider. (more…)
Published July 23, 2021
We thought a recent article by David Keller on the various types of market corrections might be of interest. Here it is with some recast charts we provide to assist:
“As the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes have pounded away at new all-time highs basically every month in 2021, investors are left to wonder when a correction may actually be coming. We were taught that markets do not just go straight up, but instead they move in a series of impulse moves and corrective reactions as the overall trend continues. But 2021 has very much been the exception to that rule of market trends! (more…)
Published July 16, 2021
The stock market is in the midst of a correction, a pullback in price. With broad market indexes hitting new highs, this assertion sounds clearly wrong. However, look under the surface of those indexes and most stocks are going nowhere, with a sizeable chunk of them declining. (more…)
Passive investing involves buying index ETFs or funds of varying asset classes in some predetermined target mix, such as 60% of a portfolio invested in stocks and 40% in bonds. The investor focuses on buying this portfolio at the lowest possible costs, holding the ETFs/funds indefinitely while occasionally making minor adjustments to keep the portfolio near its target mix. The challenge in following a passive investment approach is setting aside our emotional response to a market under severe pressure. Seeing your account balance dropping 20% is difficult for most of us to stomach. We believe investors do not have to suffer through those gut-wrenching declines. (more…)
Published July 2, 2021
Last week we brought you a global outlook from Schwab. This week, we bring a mid-year outlook published by Invesco, the company responsible for the Nasdaq 100 ETF (symbol: QQQ) that our models focus on. Needless to say, Invesco is very positive on the outlook. (more…)
Published June 25, 2021
With mid-year outlooks for the markets and economy being published this month, we take a look at what the retail investing behemoth, Schwab, has to say about the remainder of 2021. Their article below focuses on the global economy. (more…)
Published June 18, 2021
This year’s stock market has been all about rotation with money moving into value stocks and out of growth stocks. The narrative has been that rising inflation would push up interest rates. The hike in rates in turn raises the denominator of the classic stock price valuation (e.g. earnings/interest rates) which devalues high-flying growth stocks. The beneficiaries of this narrative have been cyclical sectors like materials, industrials, and energy. This week that narrative took a beating. (more…)
Published June 11, 2021
This week’s inflation report generated plenty of alarming headlines. As the chart below shows, inflation hit its highest point since, well, the end of the last economic crisis. Which points to one of the reasons why the alarming headlines are misleading. (more…)