Posts Tagged ‘Market Commentary’

The U.S. financial markets experienced strong performance and resilience in the first half of the year. Major stock indices, such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, hit record highs during this time period. Much of the rally is attributed to the robust performance of a select group of mega-cap stocks, particularly those benefiting from…

Strong performance spread throughout the financial markets in the first quarter of the year driven by resilient economic growth, optimism around artificial intelligence (AI), and expectations for future interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. With the first quarter closed and NCAA March Madness brackets inevitably “busted,” let’s take a closer look at how the economy…

As we welcome the New Year, it’s a perfect moment to reflect on the journey of the past year and anticipate what’s ahead. The final months of 2023 brought us a mix of surprises and steady growth in the financial world. We’ve seen how businesses adapted, new opportunities emerged, and communities came together in resilience.…

Petersen Hastings

Petersen Hastings

In fact, the only money related searches to make the top 10 list in 2022 were #7 “Mega Millions” and #8 “Powerball.”  This indicates to me that in a time of declining stock and bond markets, people hope to turn their fortunes around by hitting it big with lottery games.  Instead of looking at their financial statements,…

The 3rd quarter of 2022 started out strong, with the S&P 500 Index climbing almost 15% from the end of June to the middle of August.  Then, the Federal Reserve indicated they might have to be more aggressive with interest rates to respond to the rising inflation numbers.  The markets around the globe took this as bad news…

The 2nd quarter of 2022 was mostly negative for stocks and bonds as the markets reacted to the highest inflation rates since the 1980s.  The Federal Reserve has responded to the rising inflation numbers by increasing the Federal Funds Rate by 0.5% in May, then another 0.75% in June to set the target rate between…

2022 has started out mostly negative for both the global stock and bond markets, as the economy responds to increasing prices and the conflict in Ukraine.  Rising prices started well before the Russia/Ukraine conflict as strong demand for products was met with a simultaneous shortage of supply for almost everything.  A simple economic concept illustrates that when quantity…

Every year on New Year’s Day, I look at Google Trends and reflect on what people searched for during the year.  For me, it gives me time to reflect on just how many things happened during the year, how fast topics of interest changed, and what kind of information people looked for.  It certainly does not come…