Posts by webteam

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Sept. 24 – 30, 2023 September is a sour month for markets The month of September is historically a rough month for markets — and this year was no exception. Rising gas prices and high mortgage rates weighed on markets throughout the month. Then the prospect of a…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Sept. 17 – 23, 2023 He’ll “know it when he sees it” The Federal Reserve didn’t raise rates last week but left the door open for one more rate hike in the final two meetings of 2023. This was widely expected, but markets still didn’t like Chairman Jerome…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Sept. 10 – 16, 2023 Inflation is sticking around The latest consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) numbers came in higher than expected last week, signifying that inflation continues to persist. Despite the speed at which the Federal Reserve raised rates over the past year,…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Sept. 3 – 9, 2023 The economy is hanging in there Stocks closed lower last week, even as the latest data shows the U.S. is still doing well from an economic standpoint. Not a lot of new numbers were released, but the ones that were generally surprised on…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Aug. 27 – Sept. 2, 2023 No major damage from Jackson Hole Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments from the Economic Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, didn’t really change the overall mood of the markets, although he was pretty hawkish. At last year’s summit, Powell basically killed any…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Aug. 20-26, 2023 Mixed signals lead to mixed returns Markets didn’t know which direction to go last week as they tried to decide which had more weight: the good news or the not-so-good news. On the good side, the labor market appears strong, as the weekly jobless claims…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: August 13-19, 2023 Fed hike remains on the horizon The minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting were released last week. They showed some Fed members were in favor of pausing rate hikes, but most were on the side of continuing to raise rates. The 10-year Treasury zoomed…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: August 6-12, 2023 Sticky inflation Inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), came in at 3.2% year over year for July, up 0.2% from June’s reading of 3.0%. The producer price index (PPI) was also elevated from the June reading, yet the year-over-year rate remained at…

Weekly Market Commentary THE WEEK IN REVIEW: July 30 – Aug. 5, 2023 Consequences Fitch Ratings downgraded the United States’ long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating from AAA to AA+ last Tuesday, removing the “negative” rating watch and assigning a “stable outlook” label instead. (It’s like saying we were a shaky No. 1 but now a…