Investments
5 Things to Know About Recent Bond Losses
Another quarter in the books, another quarter of losses for bonds. The Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index (“Agg”) fell 3.23%, which is the eighth worst quarter on record dating back to index inception in 1976. The index has now declined six of the last eight quarters with the two-year return -7.3% annualized. To be fair, …
Barry Gilbert
October 4, 2023
That’s Cracked! Consumers May See Relief at the Pump Despite High Oil Prices
It seems like there’s always one shoe or another ready to drop on the economy. There were fears over a government shutdown (punted for now) which Ryan wrote about, along with the restart of student loan payments and strikes. Other issues that have investors worried are another bank crisis (like Silicon Valley Bank), or a …
Sonu Varghese
October 3, 2023
Has Tech Lost its Mojo? A Market Overview
In the ever-evolving world of investing, markets can shift in the blink of an eye. While a mere few weeks do not necessarily establish a solid trend, it’s hard not to notice that the Technology Sector, which had been a front-runner for a significant part of the year, seems to have taken a backseat. Since …
Carson Group
October 2, 2023
The Strikes Are Telling Us Something Really Important About the Economy
Strikes, student loans, and shutdown have been the top 3 concerns for investors in recent weeks. Earlier this week, Ryan wrote about the government shutdown, and I discussed why the student loan payment restart may not be a huge concern. I want to tackle strikes in this post. Strikes have been in the news recently, …
Sonu Varghese
September 29, 2023
Why Stocks Should Rally In The Fourth Quarter
“Wake me up when September ends.” -Green Day Good riddance to what has been a very rough month for stocks. In fact, both August and September saw weakness, living up to their reputation as a potentially troublesome timeframe based on seasonality. Most might not remember it now, but the first half of 2023 was one …
Ryan Detrick
September 28, 2023
Why The Student Loan Payment Restart Is Not Going to Crash the Economy
We’ve gotten a lot of questions about the potential impact of a government shutdown and the restart of student loan payments in October. Ryan wrote about the government shutdown yesterday, while today I will take a closer look at the student loan payments restarting. The fear is that a sudden resumption of payments will result …
Sonu Varghese
September 27, 2023
Ten Things to Know About a Government Shutdown
“I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” -Will Rogers As you’ve probably heard by now, the government is on the brink of shutting down unless Congress connects on a Hail Mary to pass a dozen spending bills before the September 30 funding deadline. The odds are this won’t happen …
Ryan Detrick
September 26, 2023
Prospects for the Modern Energy Sector with Higher Oil Prices
Of all the commodities that course through the veins of our world, it seems that none has the power to influence nations, economies, and daily lives quite like oil. It’s the lifeblood of industry, the force that propels most of our cars and planes, and an underlying current of geopolitics. Oil prices have been steadily …
Carson Group
September 25, 2023
Leading Indicator Points to Recession, Ours Says the Opposite
It can be hard to get a handle on all the economic data that is continuously being released, and even worse, they can often send conflicting signals. One approach is to combine several indicators that typically give you an early warning signal about economic turning points into a single indicator, i.e. a “leading economic index” …
Sonu Varghese
September 22, 2023
Five Takeaways From the Fed Meeting
The Federal Reserve (Fed) chose to pause on interest rate hikes at their September meeting, leaving the federal funds rates unchanged at 5.25-5.50%. This was not unexpected, but the members did give us a lot of new information. They updated their economic projections, i.e. their views of what the economy, employment, and inflation will do …
Sonu Varghese
September 21, 2023
Excell is a Wrap
What a week last week was! Carson Group hosted Excell, our largest event of the year, in the awesome town of Nashville. If you were there, then you know how much fun it was. If you missed it, don’t worry, we’ll be back again in Orlando next year. We hope you can join us. The …
Ryan Detrick
September 20, 2023
10 Reasons the Economy Has Been Resilient Despite an Aggressive Fed
The Fed’s policy arm, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), meets on Tuesday and Wednesday and is widely expected to keep the fed funds target range unchanged at 5.25 – 5.50%. Since March, 2022 the Fed has raised rates at every meeting except the meeting before last in June. With the Fed raising rates as …
Barry Gilbert
September 19, 2023