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,…

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…

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).

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…