{"id":574,"date":"2021-06-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/01\/markets-and-the-summer-months\/"},"modified":"2021-06-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T00:00:00","slug":"markets-and-the-summer-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/markets-and-the-summer-months","title":{"rendered":"Markets and the Summer Months"},"content":{"rendered":"

The s<\/strong>ummer <\/strong>months, years ago<\/strong>, tended to be challenging for the stock market.\u00a0 Traders and investors would go on vacation, so not much happened….\u00a0 This was in a time<\/strong> where most<\/strong> of the public information was learned via TV, newspapers, and radio……. NOT<\/em> Social Media!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, of course<\/strong> with information flowing 24\/7, an abundance of market\/economic information is available at one\u2019s fingertips, suggests that markets do not go on vacation.\u00a0 Even though people are going to be out and about in abundance, I don\u2019t expect the market to be too quiet over the next few months. The last week of May<\/strong> finished with the major stock market indexes higher<\/strong>.\u00a0 The Dow rose 1.03%, the S&P 500 1.20%, the Nasdaq Composite 2.08% and the Russell 2000 2.45%.<\/p>\n

Over the pond was just as impressive with Foreign stocks up 1.24% and Emerging Market Stocks moving higher by 2.39%.<\/p>\n

Bond yields remain resiliently low with our 10-year US Treasury Yield hovering around 1.60%.<\/p>\n

Prices Moving Higher<\/strong><\/p>\n

This morning Tesla announced<\/strong> they are increasing prices due to supply chain pressures\/raw<\/strong> materials<\/strong>, and Intel said the chip shortage<\/strong> may last longer than many anticipate.\u00a0 If you know anyone in the automobile dealership industry as I do, you are aware that inventories have never been lower. Dealership owners and key employees who are driving \u201cdemos\u201d are handing them in, to be sold.<\/p>\n

The price of WTI Crude Oil<\/strong> today is trading over $68\/barrel from $48.52 on December 31, 2020.\u00a0 Driving is back to normal and jets are flying!<\/strong>\u00a0 My guess, higher gas prices won\u2019t matter for awhile as most people have additional stimulus in their pockets to absorb additional costs, for now! \"\"<\/p>\n

Higher prices of cars, due to slim inventories also won\u2019t matter to most buyers as most people either finance or lease their cars.\u00a0 Low interest rates and longer loan periods are fueling people buying new and used cars even knowing they are paying top dollar.<\/p>\n

Old news, housing prices are crazy high<\/strong>.\u00a0 Lumber backlogs, low housing inventory and of course rock bottom interest rates are all factors. Let\u2019s hope that interest rates stay low until inventory levels normalize in many industries!!<\/p>\n

Summer Pleasure<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Even though it poured all weekend at the Jersey Shore, spirits were high.\u00a0 It was an absolute pleasure to pony up to the bar at the Cove in Brigantine with 8 friends… and just enjoy life.\u00a0 The best part for me – there was absolutely no conversation about Covid, politics or the stock markets.\u00a0 Just a laid-back enjoyable time.\u00a0 Ah, now that\u2019s<\/strong> <\/em>normal!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The summer months, years ago, tended to be challenging for the stock market.\u00a0 Traders and investors would go on vacation, so not much happened….\u00a0 This was in a time where most of the public information was learned via TV, newspapers, and radio……. NOT Social Media!\u00a0 Today, of course with information flowing 24\/7, an abundance of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":577,"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\/574"}],"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=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}