Here we are again – another month, another set of inflation readings. April’s reports were both very encouraging. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for April was released this week, and it showed clear progress in the ongoing battle against inflation. CPI rose 0.4% in April and 4.9% year over year – both 0.1% lower […]

Here we go again. Earlier this week, as expected, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) raised the fed funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 5.0-5.25%. This is the tenth increase in this rate cycle (that started just over a year ago) and brings rates (from zero) to levels last seen before […]

Being from Milwaukee, I likely shouldn’t admit this (shhhhh, don’t tell anyone!) – but I don’t watch a lot of Bucks basketball. Nothing personal against the Bucks, but NBA just isn’t on my usual radar. However, once playoff time rolls around, I can’t help but get swept up in the action and this year was […]

It’s been a relatively quiet week market wise – quarterly earnings continue and we are in between major economic releases and Fed meetings. As a result, I thought we could all use a fun “Pam to Paper” exercise on brand loyalty. Market musings will return next week! Last week, Warren Buffett gave a three-hour interview […]

Two major economic reports have been released in the past week for March – labor report and inflation report (as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)). Let’s review the headlines of these economic news releases and explore what these reports may mean for markets moving forward. Labor Market Report Markets may have been closed […]

The health of employment in the country has always been a topic of interest. However, ever since COVID, the release of the monthly payroll report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has become “must see TV,” second only to the release of CPI! Early on in the pandemic, it was shocking to see how quickly […]

Some client questions and discussions are more challenging than others. The ones I’ve been having in the wake of the recent banking crisis (you can read more on that here) have been hard. Not because these are contentious topics to address and not because I don’t know how to answer them. They are challenging because […]

Here we are, nearing the end of Q1 2023. If you simply looked at market returns, you would think it was a pretty decent quarter. During the first three months of the year (with one trading day to go), equity markets have risen around 5%, interest rates have fallen slightly (giving a boost to bond […]

The Federal Reserve found itself facing a considerable dilemma this week at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting that took place Wednesday March 22, 2023. How would they balance the tension between their ongoing battle against inflation and the threats posed by the recent instability in the banking system? Up until a few weeks ago, […]

It’s been about ten months since I started writing these weekly letters to all of you. During most of that time, we have talked at length about the “after shocks” of COVID and the related government stimulus, focusing largely on inflation and the resulting rapid rise in interest rates to offset it. We have talked […]