SVB Failure – March 2023
We’re sure you’ve heard of the concern of banks defaulting. Here’s a a quick recap of what happened the week of March 10th:Last week, regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank (NASDAQ: SIVB), the nation’s 16th-largest bank. The bank was declared insolvent after it couldn’t satisfy withdrawals by depositors last Thursday and Friday.How did a recently thriving…
February 2023 – Manager’s Thoughts
Author: Joe Maas, Chief Investment Officer, SPG Advisors LLC Financial Markets Investors ended the last full week of February concerned over a likely more sustained period of quantitative tightening, as Fed members speak out and more economic data comes in. Year to date, as of Thursday, February 23rd, the S&P 500 is up +4.5%, the…
February 2023 – Inflation Update
Dated February 24th, 2023 Author: Joe Maas, Chief Investment Officer, SPG Advisors LLC February Inflation Update CPI Components Before diving deeper into what the Consumer Price Index means beyond an increase (or decrease) in prices, it’s important to understand exactly what CPI tracks. The three largest categories, which account for 57.3% of the CPI, are…
How Interest Rate Increases May Affect Your Retirement Savings
Bonds are generally considered a “safer” alternative to the volatile stock market but with the Fed increasing interest rates, it presents challenges to retirees who are looking for long term investments to protect and grow their capital.
Tax Forward Planning for Your Retirement Investments
When you’re planning (and budgeting) for retirement, it’s important to consider how much you’ll pay annually in taxes to ensure you don’t outlive your savings. You can pay different amounts of taxes depending on the types of retirement savings accounts you withdraw from.
Monthly Market Report
Posted December 6, 2022 November 2022’s Market Highlights Domestic markets improved at month-end but were still underwater year-to-date. The 10-year Treasury yield curve declined -34 basis points, gold increased to mid-summer prices, and oil and gasoline drained noticeably as European and Asian markets showed autumn gains yet remained below par compared with the start of…
Despite continued market and geopolitical volatility, there is still a good case that the U.S. equity markets make up ground in the second half of the year.
Posted July 8, 2022 Q2 2022 continued to experience the effects of supply chain constraints, the tapering of Covid while ushering in peak inflation, course correction by the Federal Reserve’s Fed funds rates, and the end of quantitative easing and the beginning of quantitative tightening, a rapid rise in mortgage rates and continued escalation in…
Supplier Prices Remain at Record High Levels
Posted May 19, 2022 On Thursday of this week, the U.S. Labor Department reported the Producer Price Index increased 11% in April from 1-year prior. The Producer Price Index is a broad measure of supply conditions in the economy, marking its fifth monthly consecutive gain of more than 10%. The PPI remains at stubbornly high…
Quarterly Review Q-1 2022
Posted April 14, 2022 – Q1 2022 marks President Joe Biden’s first full year in office. Q1 2022 under the Biden Administration saw the economy continue to recover amidst a backdrop of increasing vaccination rates, consumer spending, a strong labor market, supply chain constraints, and a tapering of the Covid variant, Omicron. On 1/27/2022 the…
Strong March Jobs Report Send 2/10 Treasury Yields to Invert
Posted April 4, 2022 – The strong March jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, April 1st accelerated the 2-year treasury to 2.45% marking an inversion against the 10-year treasury, which also saw its yield rise on the same day, to 2.38%. Historically, yield curve inversions have occurred prior to recessions,…
Cryptocurrency Trends
Posted March 29, 2022 Sound Planning Group CEO, David Stryzewski discussed cryptocurrency and bitcoin live on CoinDeck TV! Click below to watch the full interview. Financial Advisors to Remain Skeptical of Crypto Assets in 2022 Seems to be two different types of Investors in Crypto today … Those who are more like speculators/gamblers who are…
Job Market Optimism
U.S Labor Department February Jobs Report – The U.S. Labor Department February jobs report on Friday, March 4, 2022, showed employers added 678,000 workers to their payrolls last month as adults joined the workforce at the highest rate in 7 months. The jobless rate fell from 4.0% to 3.8% in February, approaching 50-year lows of 3.5% (not seen since just before the pandemic).
Russia Invades Ukraine
Posted February 22, 2022 Geopolitical Market Review – The markets continue to experience turbulence as Ukraine defends itself from Russia’s invasion. Heightened geopolitical risks on top of the anticipated unwinding of the Fed’s bond purchases and rate increases have pushed the volatility index known as the VIX to 29.47, which is down from the 12-month…
Saudi Arabia, U.S. Frackers, and U.S. Margin Debt
Posted February 22, 2022 The Unsuspecting Drivers of U.S. Inflation and Market Volatility As U.S consumers continue to feel the pinch of rising costs on everything from food, gasoline, apparel, home furnishings, and travel, inflation increased 7.5% in January 2022 from one year prior. Record inflation has brought with it market volatility and geopolitical instability…
Risk vs. Inflation
Posted January 14, 2022 Inflation – CPI All Items Hits Highest Annual Rate of Change Since June 1982 On Tuesday, January 11, 2022, at the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s Senate confirmation hearing, chairman Powell called high inflation a “severe threat” to a full economic recovery and that the central bank was preparing to raise…
Q4 Quarterly Commentary 2021
Posted December 30, 2021 – As we near the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, it also marks the end of Biden’s first full year in office. The fourth quarter under the Biden administration saw the economy continue to recover amidst a backdrop of increasing vaccination rates, consumer spending, supply chain constraints, and a…
WA Cares Fund Premium Program Delayed
Posted December 28, 2021 – Gov. Jay Inslee is Pressing Pause on the Washington Cares Fund Premium Program Gov. Jay Inslee, together with Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, released the following statements on delaying the Washington Cares Fund premium assessment: “I have been in ongoing discussions with legislators about the…
Fed Pivot is Timely and Welcome
500 Sector Level Profit Margins – Not All Sectors are Created Equal On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, the Federal Reserve doubled down on the rate of the asset purchase taper. They approved plans that will more quickly scale back their pandemic stimulus efforts, ending the asset purchases by March of 2022 instead of June. The…
The Surprising Benefits of Inflation Hitting a 39-Year High
Posted Friday December 10, 2021 As strong consumer demand and supply shortages continue to pressure prices on everything from food, energy, and automobiles, the U.S. Labor Department reported inflation for the month of November at a 39-year high of 6.8%. Despite the high inflation rates we have witnessed over the past year, the main driver…
Normalization of Earnings Growth will Dictate Style Performance in 2022
Posted November 17, 2021 – S&P 500 EPS Growth Comparison for 2021, 2022 & 2023 As a follow-up to last week’s Deflating the Fears of Longer-Term Inflation talking points, we are now well into the second half of Q3 2021 earnings season and if one thing has become crystal clear, it is that 2022 is…
2022 Market Strategy: Deflating the Fears of Longer-Term Inflation
Posted October 20, 2021 – Federal Reserve in Focus Again this Week with the November FOMC Meeting The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee has just wrapped up their November meeting and has made the asset purchase ‘taper’ official. There are 2 broad-based guideposts to keep in mind as investors and the Federal Reserve alike prepare…
Synergy Asset Management Focus Dividend Portfolio – Member in Focus PepsiCo Reports Q3, 2021 & Lifts its Outlook as Sales Rise
Posted October 21, 2021 –PepsiCo Member in Focus – Focus Dividend Portfolio PepsiCo, Inc. is one of the leading global food and beverage companies. Its complementary brands and businesses include Frito-Lay snacks, Pepsi-Cola beverages, Gatorade sports drinks, Tropicana juices, and Quaker foods. Until last week (October 14th), Shares of PepsiCo had lagged the industry year-to-date,…
Inflation: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?
Posted September 30, 2021 Before buying into central bank assurances that inflation is transitory, we must remain vigilant of the fact that the largest risk facing the economy remains a policy misstep by the Federal Reserve in their anticipation of inflation. While most investors and strategists are all in agreement with the Fed that inflation…
Evergrande Property Developer Update
Posted September 24, 2021 Evergrande property developer in China (3333-HK) is a situation that has been monitored since Citron Research originally wrote a research piece on the indebted property developer claiming its business model was not sustainable. Short-seller Andrew Left of Citron Research warned investors about the growing risk of Evergrande almost 10 years ago….
Mega Cap Technology Stocks on the Rebound
July 26, 2021 During Q2, we maintained a positive outlook for the mega-cap tech names in our strategy, and our patience is now being rewarded as the rate of change on 10 years settles down driven by commodity price abatement as consumer demand begins to shift between high priced goods to services. Since the end of March…
Q2 Market Commentary
June 23, 2021 The second quarter under the Biden administration saw the economy continue to recover as vaccination rates continue toward an aspirational rate of getting at least 1 dose of coronavirus vaccine to 70 percent of adults by July 4th. With the Q1 passing of the $1.9 Trillion-dollar COVID bill, growth in U.S. government…
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