Insights

August 24, 2026 BONDS TAKE CENTER STAGE: Investors were watching the bond market carefully this week. As you can see below, the overall bond market has been treading water this year, and it decreased again last week. In last week's MacGray Matter, we discussed the U.S. selling some European debt to buy Japanese debt in order to prevent Japan from selling its U.S. bonds. This week, the U.S. Treasury acted again by announcing plans to at least double its plans to buyback lo

August 16, 2026 U.S. RETAIL SALES DOWN IN JULY: U.S. retail sales decreased by 0.6% in July, the worst monthly number in a year. Declines in auto sales and non-store retailers dragged the reading down. Amazon moved its Prime Day sales event to June this year, which impacted the non-store retail number (down 2.2%). The first half of the year has been strong, and so we will watch future months to see if this is a blip or a trend. (Did the end of the World Cup have an impac

August 9, 2026 A DECLINE IN JOBS: In July, jobs in the U.S. declined by 23,000. There was an unusual drop of 50,000 government education workers in July. The unemployment rate decreased to 4.1%, but that was because over 260,000 people dropped out of the labor force, which is never a positive sign. Strict immigration enforcement and our aging population is going to slow growth without raising the unemployment rate, and July was a perfect example of that. Private payrolls

August 2, 2026 THE U.S. ECONOMY: As measured by gross domestic product (GDP), the U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 1.5% in the second quarter. The consensus expectation on Wall Street was 2.0%, so this was a disappointment. U.S. GDP grew at an annualized rate of 2.1% in the first quarter. The key driver for growth was personal consumption which grew at a 3.2% annualized rate. Data center construction grew at a 15.2% rate. Business investment in information pro

July 19, 2026 OIL PRICES BACK ABOVE $100 PER BARREL: With renewed vigor in the Iran war, oil prices have shot back up above $100 per barrel for the first time since June 3. U.S. STOCKS DECLINE: U.S. stocks across the board were negative last week. The S&P 500 registered its second consecutive negative week for the first time since March. With little in the way of economic reports, geopolitical events and their impact on oil prices took center stage as well as a general se

July 19, 2026 CONSUMER PRICES DECREASE IN JUNE: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) decreased by 0.4% in June. This was not surprising as gas prices decreased by 10%. Over the past twelve months, prices are up 3.5% (down from 4.2% last month). The "core" CPI which excludes energy remained unchanged, and the twelve month number is now 2.6%. Compared to a year ago, the CPI is higher (2.7% a year ago). The 2.6% core CPI is lower (2.9% a year ago). The Fed closely monitors the co

July 7, 2026 OIL BACK UP, STOCKS MIXED: The Iran war heated back up, oil prices rose, and stocks struggled. However, U.S. tech and energy stocks rose which carried the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ to a positive week. Hewlett Packard and Meta both rose double digits for the week. South Korean memory chip maker SK Hynix launched what turned out to be a $26.5 billion share sale, the largest ever by a non U.S. company. LONGER-TERM PERFORMANCE: Below are the annualized three-year

Stephanie Vincent, Client Relationship Associate At the heart of financial planning is trust, and Stephanie Vincent excels at fostering deep connections that help clients feel secure and supported. As a Client Relationship Associate at Stonecrop Wealth Advisors, Stephanie focuses on understanding each individual's unique journey, providing the reliable guidance and attentiveness required to help them achieve their long-term financial goals. Stephanie’s approach is grounded in

July 7, 2026 250 YEARS: The birthday of the United States of America occurred over this weekend. I am old enough to remember the bicentennial. Gerald Ford was president because the elected president and vice president resigned in disgrace. The Democrats were deciding between Jimmy Carter, Frank Church, and Edmund Brown to run against Ford. Israeli commandos were carrying out a daring raid at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, rescuing 105 hostages. The Vietnam war had recently