A record setting year for the stock market is over. In 2013, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 26.5%, the S&P 500 (large-cap stocks) was up just under 30%, the NASDAQ composite (dominated by tech stocks) jumped 38.3%, and the Russell 2000 (small-cap stocks) was up 37%. I’ve already heard in the last few
For today’s market commentary, I was bound and determined to use the above title, ‘Taper/Elastic’, as a play on the phrase ‘paper or plastic’. I think I can make it work; see if you agree. First off, let’s define taper, the word that you may be hearing over and over in the media lately. This
The stock market reached new highs this week, leading more and more people and money to enter the market. There are still those who, since 2008, have stayed on the sidelines and it has only been recently that some of them have decided that the market may be safe again. Two points on that:
Unless something happens this afternoon, the much talked about government shutdown will happen tonight at midnight. This isn’t the first time this has happened, last happening twice in the 1990’s during Clinton’s presidency. But what does it really mean? Among other things: National Parks would close IRS call centers would close Veteran’s disability claims would
I thought I’d give a quick market update on a time period that we can relate with, instead of a calendar quarter or whatever, so this discussion will cover the summer (starting June 1) and going until the present day. First off, it was in May that the Dow Jones Industrial Average first crossed 15,000,
I was at an industry conference last week, and a good deal of time was spent in talking about how fraudsters are targeting the business that I am in, and thereby my clients. An example was given about how a financial advisor received an e-mail from his largest client, asking for a relatively small ($10,000)
So, one month ago I wrote this article, calling for a drop which didn’t materialize at the time, but instead happened two weeks later. Volatility has increased dramatically over the last few days thanks to liquidity concerns coming out of China, and the S&P 500 is down over 5% total over the last 5 days.
After weeks, nay months, of rising, the stock market is off yesterday/today. As of this writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down over two hundred points (2.2%) from Tuesday’s all-time high and the S&P 500 Index (a better indicator of the overall economy) is off by a little more, about 2.6%. I had expected
Now that the market has recently reached new highs, I wanted to talk about some things I’m starting to hear more and more clients mention. I’m calling this ‘contradictions in investing’ as there are things that we may think that we know, but by digging a little deeper we may find that those paradigms are
There continues to be a lot of talk about the Fiscal Cliff, but the question is, how does that impact you? The exact answer at this very moment is still unknown, and won’t likely be known for several more weeks or months. What is known is that investing is for the long term. Tax rates