When managing clients’ investments, strategic wealth advisors know that timing is important. What’s more, consideration of all aspects of a client’s financial household must be executed to provide optimal outcomes. Many investors […]
It’s been quite a year! We started 2024 with expectations for a recession, high inflation and mounting geopolitical tensions. We are ending it with a great economy, a presidential election and interest rate cuts. And somehow, through all this noise, the market […]
The market went three-for-three in terms of strong quarterly performance this year. The S&P 500 increased by 10.6% in Q1, 4.3% in Q2 and 5.9% in Q3 — delivering a compounded 22.1% year-to-date annual growth rate through the end of the third quarter […]
The Federal Reserve (Fed) has lowered interest rates by 75 basis points since initiating its easing campaign, reducing the federal funds rate to 4.50 – 4.75% from a multi-decade high of 5.25 – 5.50% in September. During this period, inflation has ticked up slightly, and the […]
Many investors use tax loss harvesting to reduce tax liabilities by realizing losses and using them in the current tax year, or carrying them forward, to offset capital gains in other areas of their portfolio. The benefits of this technique for investors are tried, true and […]
A Resilient Economy Spells ‘Higher for Longer’ We have had an interesting couple weeks in the markets. First, the week of the election we had a strong market rally of close to 5% for the S&P 500 with what has been called the “Trump Trade”. The following week, we had the “Trump Fade”, as the market experienced […]
The decisive outcome of the 2024 Presidential election and the 0.25% Fed rate cut remove uncertainty from the markets, creating space for investors to refocus on fundamentals. With the S&P 500 on track for a potential back-to-back 20% gains, it is useful to consider how rare such market performance is and the implications for investors going forward […]
It has been six weeks since the Federal Reserve (Fed) commenced its easing campaign with a 50-basis point (bps) “jumbo” cut to interest rates. Next week, an additional 25 bps cut is widely anticipated at the November 6-7 Federal Open Market Committee meeting. While shorter bonds have largely performed as expected in this environment, longer maturities across major fixed income indices have seen yields spike higher […]
Heading into a potential year two of a 20%+ bull market, trends that may support future positive performance include supportive monetary policy from the Fed, positive corporate earnings surprises, low inflation and ongoing strong economic growth. Performance of asset classes during past rate cutting cycles are […]
Opportunities to minimize taxes and maximize investment returns should be top of mind for investors and their advisors. Mindful tax planning involves a variety of strategies; approaches that utilize a metric known as tax alpha can aid investors and their advisors through practices such as capital gains budgeting, which can mitigate the surprise of an unexpected tax bill […]
