I recently read an article from one of my financial subscriptions, The Motley Fool, and felt it to be a great read for my clients. I am therefore, attaching it for you to read. I hope it will be as meaningful to you as it was to me. William C. Heath, CFP® Battle Your Brain: How to Become a Less-Biased…
MARKET COMMENTARY JANUARY 2016 The last few months have been extremely difficult for investors. Our economy has slowed in the fourth quarter to about 1.5% GDP growth. The Federal Reserve finally started their long anticipated “Normalization” of interest rates by raising Fed Funds 25 basis points. The U.S. Dollar is continuing its move higher, driving oil prices lower as well…
PORTFOLIO UPDATE December 16, 2015 As you may know, November and December to date have been very volatile markets. With approximately 50% give or take in cash in your Fidelity accounts, we are holding our own with an average return for the total accounts at 3.88%. The DOW is down (1.17%), the S&P is down (0.24%) and the NASDQ is…
MARKET COMMENTARY NOVEMBER 2015 By BEN DICKEY Chairman of the Investment Committee October job gains came in much higher than was anticipated. The Labor Department stated the economy added 271,000 jobs in October. In addition 12,000 jobs were added to the August- September time frame. Also average hourly earnings rose 2.5% on a year over year basis which is the…
Barrington Financial Advisors, Inc. Here is an article from Motley Fool that I consider very thought provoking. Although we at Barrington can’t plan for every event that the future holds, we do plan for liquidity, flexible in our expectations and the willingness to adapt to changing circumstances. It is therefore very important that we be advised of any changes in…
The Federal Reserve held their September meeting and left interest rates unchanged. The strength of the dollar and turmoil in the U.S. and international markets gave the Federal Reserve pause. If they had raised the rates, the dollar would have increased and depressed emerging market currencies. Also, inflation is running below the Fed’s goal of 2% on an annual basis.…
4th Quarter 2015 Outlook I recently read an article by Eric Parnell, CFA and would like to share portions of it with you. It provides a very good outlook for the 4th Quarter 2015. I trust you will find it as interesting as I did. Where We Are Now It was an ugly quarter for stocks from all around the…
Picture yourself on vacation to a faraway island that started on Friday, August 21, 2015 for an entire week. On this vacation you were completely off the grid, no technology whatsoever— including cellphones, laptops, or anything that would allow you to keep up with the market. When you got back home you wouldn’t have noticed much change in the market…
The Federal Reserve meets next week and will debate the need to raise interest rates on short-term instruments. There seems to be no consensus either way. The data has weakened since their last meeting and events external to the U.S. economy are also weighing on their decision. Some developments would be made worse by a rate hike. Currencies in Turkey,…
The first revision for second quarter GDP has been released. The U.S. economy seems to have shaken off the winter pause with the economy, as measured by GDP, rising at a 2.6% annual rate in the second quarter. Also, the first quarter has been revised from a narrow loss to a narrow gain. However, the first half’s growth rate of…