Insights

Weekly Market Commentary March 18, 2019

The S&P 500 rebounded 2.9% after last week’s decline as positive sentiment overcame a number of mildly negative economic reports and continued uncertainty regarding trade. The global MSCI ACWI shed 2.1%. The Bloomberg BarCap Aggregate Bond Index climbed 0.7%. Read more

Weekly Market Commentary March 11, 2019

The S&P 500 finally experienced a meaningful decline after posting gains nearly every week this year. The index dropped 2.2% last week. Read more

Weekly Market Commentary March 4, 2019

The S&P 500 used another good-news Friday to move into positive territory for the ninth week out of the last 10. Last week, the popular measure of domestic stock performance increased another 0.5%. Read more

Retirement Fund Catch-Up Contributions: An Ace Up Your Sleeve for the Long Game

For many of us, retirement planning is a persistent boogie man in the back of our minds. The statistics on people’s lack of retirement preparation are staggering, and the official retirement age seems to increase by the minute. Life expectancy is getting longer, and resources seem to be getting scarcer. Any hand that savers and wage-earners play at this point in life seems like a bet against the house, sure to lose. Read more

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Changed Things More Than You Realize

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made a lot of changes. It was the single largest tax reform bill in nearly 30 years. However, the impact of the TCJA might be a lot broader than most realize. Almost every small business owner in the country is impacted by a new tax deduction called 199A. Read more

Weekly Market Commentary February 25, 2019

The S&P 500 added another 0.7% to its impressive gains since late December. Optimism about a trade agreement between the U.S. and China continued to support markets.

While trade negotiations between the U.S. and China remain the key focus, a number of other key events and data releases are likely to move markets this week. Read more

Weekly Market Commentary February 19, 2019

The S&P 500 surged 2.6% on the news an agreement had been reached to avoid a government shutdown and increased optimism about trade negotiations. Global stocks participated in the rally. Read more

Weekly Market Commentary February 11, 2019

U.S. stocks finished barely positive last week. The S&P 500 inched 0.1% higher on a relatively light week for news. The government shutdown has delayed a number of key statistics about the strength of the U.S. economy and given investors less data then expected to evaluate it. Read more

Weekly Market Commentary February 04, 2019

Markets returned to rally mode last week and finished January significantly higher. The S&P 500 surged 1.6% on strong employment data, the Federal Reserve communicating its concerns about slowing growth, and generally positive earnings data.

The relatively strong earnings pushed Carson’s expectations for earnings growth from 11% to just less than 13%. Strong earnings performance from major oil companies helped boost estimates, too. Read more

From Washington to Your Wallet: How the Federal Funds Rate Affects Personal Finance

If you’ve watched the headlines at all in the last month, you know the markets aren’t sitting still. From the worst Christmas Eve on record to the Dow’s largest jump ever just a few days later – losses and gains seem to have less pattern every day. Experts are divided on how 2019 will look, but predictable isn’t the word any of them are using. Read more