After an ugly close to 2018, the financial markets have leapt off to a strong start in the new year with the S&P 500 up almost 7% year-to-date. While many of the economic issues that lagged the market are still unresolved, the bulls are running on Wall Street again. It’s amazing that in just 20 days, the market has gained back all of last year’s … Continue reading Inflation Expectations – Up or Down?
While I am always sorry to see the old year end, from a financial perspective I’m excited to see what the New Year is going to bring. The year 2018 closed in an ugly way for the markets with Q4 investment returns affected by slowing global economic growth, rising interest rates, and tariff uncertainty. It was the first year in a decade when there were declines … Continue reading New Year, New Markets
The holidays are a time for roaring fires and cozy Christmas dreams. Yet, the last few weeks have been far from that in the investment world as Wall Street grapples with big drops in S&P 500 value, a bond yield inversion, and global economic uncertainty. While I’d rather be writing about a ‘Santa Claus Rally’ – instead we are closing out the year in negative … Continue reading Playing with FIRE is Playing with RISK
Last week Americans voted in the midterm elections, which yielded a ‘comeback’ for Democrats and a split legislature in Washington DC. The media weren’t sure what impact that would have on investors, with MSNBC publishing two articles (within hours of each other) stating that the likely government gridlock was both the BEST and WORST thing that could happen to Wall Street. A week later is … Continue reading Mid-Term Elections – Historical Impact on Investors?
I didn’t buy a ticket for this week’s $1.7B MegaMillions lottery. While I love the basic idea of getting a chance to be an instant billionaire, doing the math on the odds spoils the fun for me. While now commonplace, lotteries are certainly one of the most interesting social concepts of all. “Let’s have tens of millions of people put a small amount of money … Continue reading Did You Play The Lottery This Week?
We watched the movie “The Italian Job” a few nights ago. It’s the heist movie where Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and company steal and re-steal $35 million in gold bars. It got me thinking about the trend in gold prices since I last wrote this article almost 18 months ago: LINK – Gold: An Investment In Fear? Despite being considered an excellent hedge against inflation … Continue reading Time Yet For Gold?
Since we are coming up on the end of June – the mid-point of the calendar year – that makes it a good time to look at market performance and see how our portfolio is performing so far in 2018. In short, it has cooled off significantly from last year, although that’s to be expected given the blazing returns posted in 2017 when the S&P … Continue reading Mid-Year Market Musings
I met a friend of my wife’s at the garden center this past Monday morning who retired a few years ago after 30+ years at a local MegaCorp. We were talking about the negative fortunes both our former employers have shown in their stock price. Both companies have seen much better days – down 25-40% from their peak a few years ago. He knew a … Continue reading MegaCorp Stock – Trading on the Familiar
Many people think of the stock markets as being owned by fat-cat rich people like Mr. Monopoly. I recently ran across an ARTICLE on Business Insider with a great chart showing how much ownership of the $25T US market has changed over the years. You can see there has been a significant democratization of US equities with a tremendous share of company ownership in employee … Continue reading Who Owns The Stock Market?
My Sunday morning newspaper headline proclaims that “The Gun Debate Regains Sense of Crisis” and social media is filled with discussion – some thoughtful, some insipid – on what direction the country should take. One friend and MrFireStation reader is taking an interesting tack on driving the change he would like to see: eliminating any investments in his portfolio that include gun companies. Regardless of … Continue reading Do You Want Guns In Your Portfolio?
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