With a market range bound as we mentioned last week, what will move the market. Complacency is high, mid to long term interest rates are moving slightly lower, inflation indicators are moderating, and earnings are static, but announcements are about to begin from first quarter results. Fear of bank failures is still in the air with the CEO of JP Morgan Chase saying worries are not over but no notable failures this week. Bank failures...
We want to ask you… Do you have student loans? Does your adult child have student loans? Do you have questions about financing for your higher education expenses? Do you have questions about financing for your children's higher education expenses? Follow our link: Student Loan Industry Updates to get insight & watch our webinar with Gradfin to learn more. Let's really understand the NOW in student loan financing together. Market Now: As we near the...
2023 Annual Offer Letter to all SAS Financial Advisors Clients SAS Financial Advisors advises all clients that our firm Form ADV has been updated. A material change is reflected in Form ADV Part 2a, Item 2. For all new, not existing, SAS Clients, assets under management up to the first $1 million will be charged a fee of 0.85% or 85 basis points. Previously the firm held a range of 0.70%-0.85%. This change does not...
Lots of market updates this week but let’s start with this interesting, published research. Where a tested, established and repeated insight that said individuals/ families' measurement of happiness with income top out at about $75,000 adjusted for inflation. The marginal utility of earnings over that figure does not result in an increase in happiness. The Study performed in 2010 and an opposing hypothesis that more income does increase happiness. Turns out for the majority of...
Today Fed Chairman Powell testified in front of the Senate and stated that it is likely that interest rates will rise farther than markets anticipate in order to slow the economy and in turn slow inflation. The result of his statements was a stock market decline as well as an increase in interest rates with the 2-year US Treasury rate reaching 5% for the first time since 2006-before the great recession and financial meltdown. As...
Market update: February markets ended with a whimper. Equity markets declined and interest rates resumed their climb both reversing trends from January. Economic uncertainty continues with the glass half full or half empty depending on what data you look at. Consumer spending as well as consumer confidence are slowing. Late payments on auto loans and credit card debt are increasing. Inflation indicators are reading higher than markets were expecting. On the other side, the employment...
Market update Inflation continues to be a major concern for markets. With the end of February 2023 in sight, this month brought a reversal of the gains of January. Good economic news on employment, GDP growth, continued consumer spending has overshadowed increasing layoffs concentrated in technology, continuing increases in wholesale prices as well as the still high consumer price inflation numbers lead markets to lean towards more Federal Reserve rate increases for longer with higher...
The department of labor released the latest inflation numbers today and they were persistently high but not quite as bad as they could have been. Markets see-sawed in the morning this week moving from down close to 1% to all 3 indexes in positive territory after about an hour of trading. Market averages continued to be volatile all day ending mostly negative. Trying to figure out this economy is impossible. Catherine Rampell has a column...
Blueprint for an emergency: Nothing like a health event to put this in the spotlight. Here is an aid to begin a cheat sheet as to what to have on deck in an event where: -Your partner becomes ill and is hospitalized -A child becomes ill and is hospitalized -Death of a spouse -Death of a child Ask yourself: What do I need to have in place if my spouse becomes disabled and cannot work...
Newsletter 143 All in one day. Fed announcement of a Fed Funds rate expected increase of ¼% but lower than the previous 4 increases of ½%. Kevin McCarthy House speaker travels to the White House to discuss raising the Federal Debt ceiling and Federal government spending. Market response to the Fed Funds rate increase was very positive. All market averages have been on a roll since the start of 2023 with the SP500 increasing over...
Newsletter 142 Stealth market moves higher. So far 2023 has a major equity average moving higher by anywhere from 1-4%. Yes, portfolio values are rebounding after a brutal 2022. There are still major economic and political issues lurking in 2023 including inflation, recession, interest rates, the Federal Reserve, federal debt limits, funding the federal government and of course the most dangerous category: other . Markets seem to become sanguine about all of the preceding concerns...
Newsletter 141 For SAS Clients: TD Ameritrade Institutional 1099s are now available online at www.advisorclient.com . Instructions: Login at www.advisorclient.com Navigate to the “Documents” tab. Then choose “Tax Documents” from the left-hand side tab options. Market Now: Stocks edge higher with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq recording largest weekly gains in over 2 months. Big banks were showing gains and driving up markets. Banks are topping analysts' expectations indicating that banks are assuming larger...
