Fall is nearly upon us in only a few weeks, officially September 23rd according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. It’s probably my favorite time of year. I just love the changing trees, campfires, high school football games, and the routine of kids going back to school!
We finally got hit with our expected pullback that I mentioned in my last letter and snapped a five month winning streak. At one point in August, we dropped over 5%, then it started to recapture some gains. Unfortunately, we are still off from our YTD high. However, the S&P 500 is still up over 17%! I’ll take that any time. The bond index is the piece of the puzzle that is still “puzzling” to most investors. It’s been flat nearly the entire year and was down big last year. There is some positive news on the horizon though. Once the Federal Reserve starts lowering rates, we could see big upside in the bond markets. The trick is to figure out when that will happen. We had a glimpse of some of the news last week when the unemployment rate unexpectedly jumped to 3.8%. This was a case of bad news is good news. The bad news is that there are more people looking for jobs. The good news is that it might signal to the Fed to ease their rate pressure. We saw a decent jump in the markets when the jobs numbers were reported. Overall as September rounds out the third quarter, we are in a good position from a stock market view after last year’s big downside.
Housekeeping: LPL is doing some major upgrades to their “Account View” tool. This is the tool you use to log into your account online via web or mobile. There will be some major improvements to self-service features, such as, updating beneficiary information, mobile check deposits, account aggregation, etc. We can still take care of these items for you without a problem. Just know that, if you use Account View, you will see some updates coming through.
Thank you again for your trust in our firm!
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.