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up to 12 Million.\u00a0 This news has our stock market futures, (I\u2019m writing this around 9:15am), down significantly.<\/p>\nThe OPEC, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, includes 14 countries (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela and others).\u00a0 The OPEC recommended a decrease in oil production as demand has decreased because of the Coronavirus.\u00a0 Russia immediately rejected the recommendation.\u00a0 Saudi Arabia, in retaliation, announced they will increase production from 9.7 Million barrels per day, up to 12 Million.\u00a0 This news has our stock market futures, (I\u2019m writing this around 9:15am), down significantly.<\/p>\n
Oil was down to $41.28\/barrel last Friday from $61.06 at the start of the year.\u00a0 This morning oil is trading down to the low $30\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Bond Yields Plummet<\/strong><\/p>\n This news has pushed US Treasury Yields down further in record territory.\u00a0 Our 10 Year is yielding .43% as of this writing.\u00a0 Our 30 Year is now yielding less than 1%, I believe for the first time ever, at a yield of .87%.\u00a0 Are negative US interest rates in the cards?\u00a0 Hard to say \u201cno way!\u201d<\/p>\n Coronavirus and Oil<\/strong><\/p>\n The Coronavirus on its own is a significant economic issue, however by itself, I believe it will be dealt with and we will move forward (with some bumps). Add in the Oil issue\u2026. and if it doesn\u2019t reverse quickly, this is significant.\u00a0 You will certainly enjoy paying less at the gas pump, however there are other potential far-reaching issues.\u00a0 Oil companies borrow money from banks and use their Oil reserves as collateral.\u00a0 As the price of oil plummets, so does the value of their collateral, causing their debt to lose value, which can cause a domino effect.\u00a0 Stay tuned for more as this unfolds\u2026 or hopefully does not! Federal Reserve<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week, now seems far in the past, our Federal Reserve did announce a rate decrease, prior to the next upcoming meeting in Mid-March.\u00a0 This certainly signals the Fed is concerned, and many are expecting an additional decrease at the actual March meeting.<\/p>\n Markets Last Week<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week witnessed the major averages having a few 4% plus daily swings up and down.\u00a0 Crazy trading weeks for stocks!\u00a0 For the week, the Dow Jones rose 1.39%, the S&P 500 rose .61%, and the Nasdaq inked out a gain of .10%.\u00a0 The Russell 2000 however declined by (1.84%).<\/p>\n For 2020, the Dow Jones is down (9.37%), the S&P 500 (8.00%), the Nasdaq (4.42%) and the Russell 2000 (13.14%).<\/p>\n Bonds that comprise the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index rose 1.88% leaving that index up an amazing, and surprising,<\/em> 5.71% for the Year.<\/p>\n Investment Positioning<\/strong><\/p>\n I will continue to mention the importance of having your investment assets properly aligned to your current and future income needs.\u00a0 If you are already retired or quickly approaching, your assets should already be in position.<\/p>\n Even having your assets properly positioned and diversified does not mean you won\u2019t see the value of your portfolio decrease in value.\u00a0 With proper asset allocation, your value should drop much less than the market and the money you\u2019ll be consuming now, should already be out of harms way.<\/p>\n Many of the experts suggest a 60% stock and a 40% Bond weighting for conservative investors who are retired.\u00a0 I actually believe that is the maximum equity % weight for retirees.<\/p>\n Your asset allocation should be developed in conjunction with a thorough<\/strong> analysis of your current and future income needs.<\/p>\n Election Update<\/strong><\/p>\n It certainly now appears that former Vice President Biden has the advantage going into tomorrow\u2019s important Super Tuesday Primary.\u00a0 Sanders has to really surprise to the upside if he still desires the nomination.\u00a0 The day after Biden took the lead, the stock market went up 4%, having some people suggest it\u2019s a relief from the policies Sanders would have backed.<\/p>\n Assuming it is Biden, my next question is, who will he pick to run with him?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The OPEC, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, includes 14 countries (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela and others).\u00a0 The OPEC recommended a decrease in oil production as demand has decreased because of the Coronavirus.\u00a0 Russia immediately rejected the recommendation.\u00a0 Saudi Arabia, in retaliation, announced they will increase production from 9.7 Million barrels per day, up to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":312,"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":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311"}],"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=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/shutterstock_1096671455-300x199.jpg\")
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