Happy New Year! We had another incredible stock market year with the S&P500 up over 23%. With back-to-back years of 20%+ gains, we made back all those 2022 losses and then some which was nice to see.
So where do we go from here? The question for the ages…can we predict the future? Of course not! I guess the way I look at it is this... We had a huge drop in 2022. I’m hoping that was our big scare for a few years. Historically, we get a bear market every five years or so. If I think about our recent drops in just the last 20 years, we had the Dot Com Bubble around 2000. We had the 08-09 Housing Crisis. We had another drop at the beginning 2020. Then we had the big 2022 drop from the Fed raising rates so quickly. It just happens. If we would’ve been scared off 20 years ago, we wouldn’t nearly have the balances we have today. So that’s how I look back on it. I don’t want to ever regret “what could’ve been” another 20 years from now.
The lingering question for most moderate to conservative investors is when will bonds turn to the upside. With a few rate cuts this past year (and a few more expected this year), fingers crossed that 2025 is the year of the bond market.
Of course at the end of every year, all of the big firms come out with their forecasts for the stock market. Wells Fargo is extremely optimistic in their prediction of the S&P500 over 7000! That would be an incredible run that we can pull for.
I wish you all warm wishes in the cold weather—even those of you in Arizona and Florida where it might get down to the low 70s!
Thank you all for your trust in us. You are very much appreciated.
Larry Mroczkowski
President
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.
The economic forecasts set forth in this material may not develop as predicted and there can be no guarantee that strategies promoted will be successful. All investing involves risks, including the loss of principal.