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The Standard and Poor\u2019s 500 Stock Index is approximately 2% from again reaching its all time high!\u00a0 <\/span>Global economic growth has been slowing, the China Tariff issue does NOT appear to have any resolution coming in the short-term, Corporate America is at least temporarily becoming a bit more cautious with expansion plans and hiring. So why are the markets, again melting up towards new highs?!\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s rather simple.\u00a0 <\/span>The Fed!<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure you recall during the early stages of this recovery, \u201cDon\u2019t Fight the Federal Reserve\u201d.\u00a0 <\/span>The Fed pumped in massive dollars into our economy, pushed interest rates down to historic lows.\u00a0 <\/span>This was in an effort to rescue the global economy from the 2008 Mortgage and Economic crisis.\u00a0 <\/span>Did it work\u2026.?? Most certainly yes!!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Looking back, most of us were skeptical of what the Fed was doing. However, if you fought the Fed and did not invest in risk-based assets, you were left behind.\u00a0 <\/span>Even the previous \u201cBond King, Bill Gross\u201d, formerly of Pimco, discounted how far the Fed would go to save our economy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I can\u2019t help but being a little confused\u2026.\u00a0 <\/span>Approximately early October of 2018, Jerome Powell suggested the Fed was going to continue to raise rates, perhaps even beyond neutral.\u00a0 <\/span>After the markets plunged over 13% on the news, he changed gears, saying the Fed is on hold indefinitely.\u00a0 <\/span>So what changed between October and year-end.\u00a0 <\/span>In my opinion, nothing other than because of his comments, year-end values were much lower.\u00a0 <\/span>His early October 2018 comments were obviously inappropriate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Federal Reserve meets this Tuesday and Wednesday and many believe the Fed will either lower rates this week or at the next Fed meeting.\u00a0 <\/span>The market has priced in a few rate cuts between now and early next year.\u00a0 <\/span>The big question I have, is a rate cut appropriate at this time?\u00a0 <\/span>The unemployment rate is at an all-time low, and GDP has been very positive for a while now! So is this a little insurance for the markets or is Jerome Powell admitting he has made a big mistake late last year and wants to rectify his actions?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If the Fed does not reduce rates this week or at the next meeting, I believe the markets will correct downwards\u2026 unless perhaps the China issue is resolved, or at least has been patched with a band aide.\u00a0 <\/span>So for the time being, I think it\u2019s again appropriate to not fight the Fed!<\/p>\n For how long this time?\u00a0 <\/span>As always, time will tell!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The markets were a little boring last week.\u00a0 <\/span>The Dow, S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 moved north approximately .50%.\u00a0 <\/span>The Nasdaq Composite was the leader, increasing .70%.\u00a0 <\/span>Over the pond, the EAFE lost (.26%), however the Emerging Market Index was up .90%.<\/p>\n Bonds according to the Barclay\u2019s Bond Index increased a mere .02% which is just fine by me.<\/p>\n What can we expect going forward?\u00a0 <\/span>No predictions by this advisor.\u00a0 <\/span>We in unchartered territory however with Interest rates staying low, low unemployment, people spending money I suggest holding the steering wheel straight for now!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What was the all-time highest Federal Funds Rate?<\/p>\n Smart Phones!\u00a0 In 2018, 1.56 billion Smart Phones were sold worldwide.\u00a0 Which of the following 3 companies had the highest number of shipments holding a 20.9% market share?<\/p>\n The correct answer is #3 – Samsung<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span>Apple was #2…. which is a surprise to many!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Fed, the Fed and the Fed The Standard and Poor\u2019s 500 Stock Index is approximately 2% from again reaching its all time high!\u00a0 Global economic growth has been slowing, the China Tariff issue does NOT appear to have any resolution coming in the short-term, Corporate America is at least temporarily becoming a bit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_statement":"","post_description":"","post_cta":"","post_button":"Read More","post_button_url":"","compliance_id":"","post_disclaimer":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,13,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Markets Last Week<\/b><\/h3>\n
Question of the Week…<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Answer to last week\u2019s question\u2026!<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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