Insights

February 8, 2026 THE ROTATION CONTINUES: The Dow Jones Industrial Average (2.50%) and the Russell 2000 (2.17%) were both solidly positive for the week, but the S&P 500 (see below) and the NASDAQ Composite (-1.84%) ended the week in the red. The blue-chip Dow hit 50,000 for the first time on Friday. Of late, investors have grown wary of the AI stock run and moved money to so-called "real economy" stocks that rely on the entire economy to grow. The Dow is limited to 30 stoc

February 1, 2026 THE FED KEEPS RATES STEADY: The Fed met last week and held rates unchanged. When this happens, economists and investors parse the words of the announcement. The Fed statement said U.S. economic growth was "solid," while in earlier announcements it said "moderate." Inflation "remains somewhat elevated." Unemployment has "shown some signs of stabilization." Two Fed governors voted for a rate cut. The Fed believes that inflation has been affected by tar

January 25, 2026 STOCKS BOUNCE AROUND AS GEOPOLITICAL NEWS DOMINATES: Will the U.S. and Europe have a tariff and trade war? As that theme dominated the news, and as world leaders gave speeches in Davos, stocks sunk, and bounced, and then hovered as nervous investors settled down, and the week ended about where it started. Intel reported a larger-than-expected loss in its fourth quarter of 2025 earnings report, and the stock decreased by 17% (still up over 100% in the past

January 4, 2026 2025 TURNED OUT TO BE A SOLID YEAR FOR STOCKS, BONDS, AND MORE: Stocks ended the year near record highs. The S&P 500 just had its third best three-year run ever. Most thought that streak was coming to a screeching halt back in April. But that dip turned back into a bull market within weeks. Tech continued to be a big driver of the gains with Nvidia up 40%, Broadcom up 51%, Alphabet up 66%, Advanced Micro Devices up 78%, and Palantir up a whopping 139% for

December 28, 2025 SOLID ECONOMIC GROWTH REPORTED FOR THIRD QUARTER: Due to the government shutdown, the third quarter gross domestic product report by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis was delayed until last week. The report showed an annualized growth rate of 4.3%. The biggest driver of growth was consumer spending, which remained robust. Consumers were spending more on healthcare, international travel, legal services, personal computers, and software. This puts the

December 21, 2025 NEW CPI DATA: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employees were furloughed during October, but we finally got an updated CPI number. These numbers were encouraging, but due to the anomalies with data collection due to the government shutdown, we probably need to see confirmation in the next couple of months. The November Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% for the two months ending in November. The twelve-month number came in at 2.7%, which was much lower th

December 14, 2025 FED LOWERS RATES AGAIN: The Fed lowered its key interest rate by another quarter of a percentage point last week, the third cut this year (all since September). This was largely expected. Two voting members voted against a cut, and one voted for a half percent cut. The Fed mentioned the softening labor market as justification. Fed Chair Powell strongly hinted that it will now be in no rush for future cuts, and it will watch future economic data closely

December 7, 2025 WAITING FOR THE FED: Investors are betting on the Fed lowering rates next week. As a result, stocks remained positive. Hopes of lower rates and lower taxes next year are providing some optimism for a reviving economy. Companies whose earnings are more sensitive to interest rates saw their stock prices rise more last week including airlines, truckers and small-cap companies (the Russell 2000, which tracks smaller company stocks, experienced more than doubl

November 30, 2025 U.S. RETAILS SALES UP: In September, retail sales rose by 0.2% from the prior month, and were 4.3% higher than a year prior. Due to the shutdown, we continue to get stale data, but it is better than no data. This September report indicates a positive, continued growth, but a slow down from the very strong retail sales growth during the summer. Retail sales were up 1.0% in June, and 0.6% in July and August. BLACK FRIDAY SALES UP: According to Adobe Analy