I was listening to a webcast from one of our mutual fund managers this week, and he touched on one of my favorite mantras – time in the market matters more than timing the market. After a few weeks of market volatility and considerable micro and macro news, I thought it was worth sharing this […]

Welcome to April and Q2 2024. Let’s look back at the past two weeks and catch-up on things! Strong Start to the Year Let’s not dive into the second quarter without first revisiting how exceptional the past three months have been for investors. The S&P 500 (a popular index for the US equity market) rose […]

While most of America was focused on setting their NCAA brackets earlier this week, market watchers were placing “bets” of their own on the Federal Reserve and the path of interest rates. As was widely expected, on Wednesday the Federal Reserve once again left rates unchanged (leaving the Federal Funds rate range at 5.25-5.5%). They […]

There is something about the month of March as major market events tend to occur during the third month of the year. There are three major market events that are celebrating anniversaries this month – do you know what they are? Here they are – starting with the most recent in 2023 and going all […]

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee for two days this past week. These briefings have become “must see TV” for market watchers as the question of 2024 remains – will the Federal Reserve cut interest rates this year, and if so when and by how much? Powell […]

The Federal Open Market Committee released the minutes from their latest meeting this week. As with all meetings, these recorded details of the actual conservations given market participants a bit more color regarding what the interest-rate setting body is thinking. These minutes covered the proceedings from January 30-31, 2024. There were a few interesting takeaways […]

This week, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January 2024 was released. The popular inflation report came in ahead of expectations, showing an increase in inflation during the month. CPI rose 0.39% in January, 0.09% more than expected. On a year-over-year basis, the index was up 3.1% (lower than December’s 3.4% but higher than 2.9% […]

Ahh January. This month always feels like it lasts forever doesn’t it? The post holiday season let-down, the cold weather, winter storms, 31 days long.. you get the idea! Yet it is a very important month as it can the set the tone for the following eleven months. It turns out this is very much […]

If you live in Wisconsin, odds are you too endured a wicked winter storm as well earlier this month. I went thru quite the adventure (which included lost power, downed trees, and manual bailing of two sump pumps)! After that experience, I took some time to sketch out action items I need to take care […]

There are a lot of adages in investing and one that has gotten a lot of air time in recent years is “don’t bet against the American consumer,” cited by those advocating for ongoing strength in the US economy backed by Americans’ desire (and ability) to spend. This adage was once again proven true this […]