Major U.S. indexes rose more than 2% Thursday. Energy stocks led the way higher as the price of crude oil jumped 25%, bouncing further off an 18- year low, after President Donald Trump said he expects Saudi Arabia and Russia to dial down their price war.
The Securities and Exchange Commission secured a summary judgment this week against a concert promoter charged with defrauding investors to promote Christian music concerts and festivals in the New England area.
Join Jamie Hopkins, Director of Carson Coaching, as he returns with new installments of his exclusive, video series, Rewirement Tips. In this week’s tip, Hopkins focuses on the recently passed SECURE Act and how it will change retirement planning immediately.
Asian stocks were meandering Thursday after a White House warning that as many as 240,000 Americans might die of the coronavirus sent Wall Street tumbling and signs of the outbreak’s global economic cost increased. Benchmarks in Tokyo and Hong Kong opened lower but were trading higher by midday.
The Fed is trying to facilitate lending and boost confidence that it’s ready to do everything it can to support the global financial system. The new lending program will allow other central banks to access dollars without having to sell Treasury securities.
Bryan Cohen, a former executive at a global investment bank, reportedly Goldman Sachs, obtained nonpublic information about potential corporate acquisitions of Syngenta AG and Buffalo Wild Wings, both of whom had engaged his then-employer to provide advisory services.
Refinance share – the percentage of all loans closed during the month that were refinances – decreased month-over-month in both November and December 2019, before seeing month-over-month growth in both January and February 2020.
Shares of Bay Area companies such as Tesla and Apple put in a mixed performance Tuesday as three months of stock market volatility brought on by the coronavirus pandemic came to an end and resulted in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to secure its worst first-quarter performance in history.
Gen X will produce the most new investable assets in the coming years, said Chip Roame, managing partner of Tiburon Strategic Advisors. Roame gave Tiburon’s five-year outlook last week for the wealth management industry, covering six broad trends on the horizon.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to significantly and negatively impact the global economy, making this crisis one of the worst we have ever faced. In addition to the tragic human toll, containment measures have further elevated near-term uncertainty for investors.
In one week, more than three million people filed for unemployment benefits. Many more didn’t make it through overwhelmed state employment systems to file- that’s how fast this recession is rising up around us.
On Jan. 19, 2017, a Rite Aid vice president allegedly sold off more than $650,000 in Rite Aid securities before company’s stock price dropped a day later. The exec avoided an $87,277 loss with the sell-off, regulators said, but will pay much more after his day in court.
Stocks rallied last week as Washington acted to provide $2.2 trillion of relief to an economy shocked by the coronavirus outbreak, leaving some on Wall Street cautiously optimistic that the panicky selling that had gripped the market earlier may have come to an end.
Some say that President Trump’s words simply represented an aspiration goal, not a policy desire, and that even if a formal decision were to be made to reopen businesses at the federal level, many state governors would presumably not change their “shelter in place” or other restrictive orders.
For longtime investors, the recent declines have conjured up memories of the Great Recession. But while that crisis brought steep stock market declines in 2008 and 2009, experts say investors were still better off sticking with their investments even through the worst of the recession.
n the past, logistical and legal issues hindered advisors who wanted to work with high-income international clients – that is, noncitizen, nonresident clients – investing in the U.S., but recent changes have opened up this significant potential market to American agents.
The U.S. markets will remain open while the country battles to control the spreading COVID-19 virus, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday. He responded to a smattering of calls for the battered markets to take at least brief holiday.
As expected, the initial jobless claims report—the one that shows how many people have been laid off and are newly applying for unemployment assistance—was a shocker this morning. Three million people lost their jobs and applied for unemployment last week.
On Wednesday, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage applications plunged 29.4% last week. Despite additional cuts to benchmark interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve, mortgage rates have actually been rising.
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, the northernmost 296 miles of the San Andreas fault ruptured. The shaking and ensuing fires— most water mains had been broken by the earthquake— destroyed half of San Francisco, then the largest city west of the Rocky Mountains and, importantly, the financial center of the American West.
The Senate passed an unparalleled $2.2 trillion economic rescue package steering aid to businesses, workers and health care systems engulfed by the coronavirus pandemic. The unanimous vote Wednesday came despite misgivings on both sides.
We’re looking at loss all around us. Loss of savings. Loss of jobs. Loss of lives. So, maybe, not looking at your 401(k) could be the best personal care move that you can make as we adjust to the drastically altered new normal.
Financial markets worldwide took it on the chin last week. The damage was severe, and here in the U.S., we still don’t know the extent of the damage that will be inflicted on us by COVID-19. Despite Friday’s rebound, the coast is not clear for investors.
People spend most of their college career refining networking skills, perfecting their resume, and completing mock interviews. But once they start their career, professional development can take a back seat to day-to-day work and life responsibilities.
With lending in Treasury and mortgage markets threatening to shut down, the Fed announced an aggressive set of programs Monday to try to smooth out those markets. The Fed’s all-out effort to support the flow of credit through an economy ravaged by the viral outbreak has now gone beyond even the extraordinary drive it made to rescue the economy in 2008.
Just mentioning an annuity in financial planning can have a polarizing effect. There are those who don’t believe in annuities to solve any problem other than guaranteed lifetime income, and there are even more who actually don’t understand the many benefits of FIAs.
The White House and Senate leaders of both parties have struck an agreement on a sweeping $2 trillion measure to aid workers, businesses and a health care system strained by the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak. Top White House aide Eric Ueland announced the agreement in a Capitol hallway shortly after midnight.
Yet another group of heroes that deserves our gratitude is the leadership of the Federal Reserve, which has taken extraordinary steps to prevent the global economy from crashing into irreversible catastrophe as business around the world grinds to a virtual halt.
A New York City man was sentenced to prison after telling investors a series of tall tales, while leaving out his prior criminal history of fraud. Nicholas J. Genovese, 55, touted an exclusive hedge fund that only accepted investments of at least $1 million.
In today’s environment, it’s easy to live in a state of panic and fear. Especially when you continually hear “Dow down 2000 points,” “We are in a recession,” “stimulus package,” “rising cases and deaths.” But focusing on the things you know will help you guide your clients out of this uncertain economic and political time.
AM Best has revised its market segment outlook to negative from stable on the U.S. disability segment, due to ongoing economic uncertainty, an expected increase in claims activity and higher unemployment.
Clients want human interaction in this time of social isolation, and they need to have their advisors communicate with them. Brock Jolly, financial advisor at Veritas Financial, shared some tips for communicating with clients during a webinar held Monday for members of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.
Lawsuits continue to mount against an online stock trading platform Robinhood after its services were interrupted several times this month, causing users to potentially miss huge stock market gains.
For the first time in history on Wall Street, there wasn’t any waving or shouting or bustling among traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the opening bell Monday. The closure affects two main areas in New York City and one in Northern California.
What a difference a few weeks make. As 2020 started, we were feeling pretty good about our portfolios after seeing strong returns for both stocks and bonds due to the Federal Reserve’s shift in interest rate policy during the year. It is unusual for both stocks and bonds to see such strong returns at the same time, but the fact they did left diversified portfolios.
New filings for unemployment benefits rose 30% last week amid cutbacks and shutdowns over the COVID-19 crisis.
Stocks are reflecting cautious optimism among investors that emergency action by the U.S. government and central banks will cushion the global economy from a looming recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Americans are more worried about their finances than getting the coronavirus, as the pandemic hamstrings major sectors of the U.S. economy. “asked Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer at the Chamber of Commerce.” Famed investor Ray Dalio estimated global corporate losses from the virus will top $12 trillion, with $4 trillion of that in…
It almost seems like a distant memory now, but shortly after the President Day’s holiday weekend the benchmark S&P 500 index closed at a record high, buoyed by another round of impressive quarterly corporate profits that had convinced investors the damage caused by a fast-spreading coronavirus in China would cause relatively little damage.
In an effort to avoid passing the coronavirus, the New York Stock Exchange announced that it is closing its floor and going to a virtual trading platform starting Monday. The closing of the New York Stock Exchange’s trading floor will be until done until further notice.
COVID-19 has left businesses in uncharted waters. It is often insurance that carries businesses through these waters. But policyholders need to know where to look for this life raft, and how to navigate these murky waters.
There is a tremendous amount of information available about the coronavirus pandemic. But what’s missing is a framework for that information that would help clarify the big picture as it related to financial services.
Just a few weeks ago the market was at its highest, and today it is down about 30 percent from that high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2,997 points Monday, the index’s biggest point drop of all time.
As seniors read the news and contemplate how to stop the bleeding of their hard-earned savings and wonder what to start doing to preserve what they have left while ensuing their ability to capture opportunities after the market recovers (and it will), what are seniors being told to do?
The U.S. stock market plunged more than 12% Monday for its worst day in more than three decades as voices from Wall Street to the White House said the coronavirus is likely dragging the economy into a recession. The plunge came even though the Federal Reserve rushed to announce a new round of emergency actions before markets opened for trading Monday.
On Wall Street, financial markets plunged by more than 11 percent, surpassing drops in Asia and Europe, as worried investors struggled to get a handle on the outbreak’s economic damage.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged a Russian national Friday with overseeing a multi-million-dollar scam to lure U.S. investors into buying fictitious Certificates of Deposit. The Florida man also faces criminal charges in New Jersey.
Join Jamie Hopkins, Director of Carson Coaching, as he returns with new installments of his exclusive, video series, Rewirement Tips. In this week’s tip, Hopkins focuses on why coaching is crucial for advisors.
The Federal Reserve took emergency action Sunday and slashed its benchmark interest rate by a full percentage point to nearly zero and announced it would purchase more Treasury securities to encourage lending to try to offset the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
Stocks bounced back Friday on hopes for a coronavirus aid package from Washington. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed nearly 2,000 points, a day after plunging 2,352 points, or 10%, for its worst loss since its nearly 23% drop on Oct. 19, 1987.
There are plenty of reasons to believe stabilization of the stock market might come soon. First, from a valuation perspective, the stock market is getting close to its cheapest level since about 2016. Second, looking at the data, we appear to be approaching some major resistance levels.
The escalating coronavirus emergency Thursday sent stocks to their worst losses since the Black Monday crash of 1987, extending a sell-off that has now wiped out most of Wall Street’s big run-up since President Donald Trump’s election. The heavy losses came amid a cascade of cancellations and shutdowns across the globe.
A federal judge froze the assets of a Florida-based investment adviser firm that raised $39 million from at least 30 investors with what the Securities and Exchange Commission is calling a “fraudulent, unregistered securities offering.”
The Federal Reserve moved Thursday to try to ease disruptions in the financial markets stemming from the coronavirus by announcing that it will sharply increase its purchases of short-term Treasury bonds. The Fed said it’s making available at least $2 trillion in short-term lending as a way to ensure that the Treasury bond market can function smoothly.
Eleven years ago, many investors watching the Dow gyrating thought things could only get worse and that we’d never see 14,000 again. Clearly, they were wrong. So, what does that mean for worried investors today?
The Securities and Exchange Commission issued a long-awaited final rule to streamline the disclosure of essential information about variable annuities. The Insured Retirement Institute called the action a “major leap forward” to provide investors with more easily digestible and navigable information.
Advisors are still reinforcing the message of riding out the slide, but helping rebalance when clients demand it. An American College survey also finds clients are generally sticking with the long-range plan.
A Connecticut man who defrauded multiple retail clients out of $1.6 million in assets settled his final set of charges today on his way to prison.
Stocks are sinking sharply again Wednesday, nearly wiping out a huge rally from a day earlier as Wall Street continues to reel from worries about the coronavirus. But investors are still waiting for details promised earlier by President Donald Trump on potential aid for the economy through tax breaks and other relief.
Local investment professionals continue to steady their clients, this time amid another turbulent trading day Tuesday. After stocks fell more than 7 percent Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s worst decline since 2008, Tuesday brought a rebound.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing a New Hampshire priest and hedge fund manager of threatening a witness and leaking confidential documents to a journalist as their ongoing court battle continues.
Stocks dropped so fast on Monday that it triggered the first automatic halts in trading in two decades. U.S. stocks are now down 19% from the peak they reached last month, edging close to a bear market, defined as a drop of 20% from the peak.
A Canadian cannabis company is facing a class-action lawsuit in California federal court alleging that it misled investors and committed securities fraud. The issue concerns allegations of self-dealing and whether the company fairly reported negative consequences to potential investors.
As the coronavirus continues to scare global markets, it would be easy forget that the current bull market started 11 years ago today. Based on investing fundamentals, analysts continue to believe we’ll see a resumption of economic growth and a continuation of this bull market into at least 2021, but worries are building.
As concern about workers’ personal finances grows, the number of employers that offer financial wellness programs through the workplace is expected to nearly double within the next few years, according to research from Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company.
Coronavirus is adding a new layer to the economic uncertainty always seen in a presidential election year, and the wild ride it’s giving markets is certain to continue, economist Ray Perryman said.
Any advisor can gain significant advantages by going independent. By charting one’s own course, advisors have the ability to shape their businesses to fit their own vision, not that of a large company. Wayne Minich shares five decades of experience as an independent advisor.
A Florida investor is suing the online stock trading platform Robinhood after its services were interrupted for nearly the entire day March 2, causing users to miss a huge stock market rally.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei dived 2.7% to finish at 20,749.75. Shares also dropped in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Vishnu Varathan at Mizuho Bank in Singapore said the potential damage from the new virus was two-fold, with the initial impact coming from a direct impact on the economy.
Three-quarters of college-educated Americans feel they are behind schedule as it relates to their personal financial security but the underlying reasons differ by gender- women are more likely to say they don’t have enough money. At the same time, men are more likely to blame having too many other responsibilities, according to a new survey.
The Securities and Exchange Commission will give some companies more time to comply with certain publicly traded company filing obligations due to the worldwide coronavirus threat.
In addition to urging the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates even more than the half-percentage point reduction it did on Tuesday, Trump renewed his call for a payroll tax cut. “I like middle-income tax cuts,” Mr. Trump told reporters. If the Democrats would approve it, I’d go along with it. “
Two teams with $272 million in combined assets under management have joined the franchise channel of Ameriprise Financial. The team said they were attracted to the depth of resources at Ameriprise to help them reach their expansion goals, including the firm’ s robust financial planning platform and practice acquisition support.
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.1% in the final quarter of last year, but damage from the spreading coronavirus is likely depressing growth in the current quarter and for the rest of the year. Vital supply chains from China that companies in the United States and elsewhere depend on have been disrupted, and that problem is expected to worsen.
Dick Grasso, former chairman and CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, put it well when he said investors should stay focused on their long-term objectives and not get shaken out of their holdings by short-term dislocations.
US Federal Reserve cuts benchmark interest rate by half-point, most since 2008, to offset coronavirus impact. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the coronavirus “poses evolving risks to economic activity.”
The market had been setting new highs as late as Feb. 12 and appeared little concerned with the coronavirus, whose effects seemed mainly confined to China. The virus has already emerged in other countries, most notably South Korea and Italy, and there is a smattering of cases in the United States. There will be more, warns the Centers for Disease Control.
A pair of unlicensed and unregistered brokers scammed investors across the country, raking in millions in commissions, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges in a new complaint.
Once voted by Fortune magazine as the “toughest boss in America,” Welch helped catapult GE stock valuation to record levels while serving as chairman and chief executive officer from 1981 to 2001. Welch died today at 83.
LPL Financial, a leading retail investment advisory firm and independent broker-dealer, today announced that Global Advisor Group has joined LPL Financial’ s broker-dealer and hybrid registered investment advisor platforms, aligning with Private Advisor Group.
U.S. stocks sank again on Wall Street Friday, pushing the S&P 500 index down another 2.8% and putting the market on track for its worst week since October 2008. The market’s losses moderated somewhat after the Federal Reserve released a statement saying it stood ready to help the economy if needed.
Some advisors sent preeemptive messages, but they didn’t calm everybody. Advisor messages focused on the long view, but some clients were looking at the long view down.
The SEC’s order finds that actor Steven Seagal failed to disclose he was promised $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of B2G tokens in exchange for his promotions, which included posts on his public social media accounts encouraging the public not to “miss out” on Bitcoiin2Gen’s ICO
The U.S. equity market finally is taking notice of the coronavirus, which now is spreading from China to other countries and increasing the risk of a shock that could cause a U.S. recession. So what are the implications for the U.S. economy and the Federal Reserve?
“Debt is going to eat us up if we don’t stay on top of it,” one expert warned.
U.S. markets fell sharply Thursday, extending losses in one of the worst weeks since the financial crisis, after the first coronavirus case in the United States that could not be linked to foreign travel was confirmed.
The coronavirus’ illness, COVID-19, is not nasty enough to be spotted easily but latent enough to spread wide before anyone even knows it has arrived.
It is important that financial planning firms are up to date on current technology tools to improve accuracy and efficiency so they can focus on what helps clients change behavior most – involvement, connection, and trust. Here are six tech tools for young advisors to try.
Join Jamie Hopkins, Director of Carson Coaching, as he returns with new installments of his exclusive, video series, Rewirement Tips. In this week’s tip, Hopkins focuses on three important things advisors can do to be better.
A North Carolina man received a lesser penalty for insider trading after blowing the whistle on himself, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday.
The White House on Monday sent lawmakers an urgent $2.5 billion plan to address the deadly coronavirus outbreak, whose rapid spread and threat to the global economy rocked financial markets. The request was immediately slammed by Democrats as insufficient and came as coronavirus fears were credited with Monday’s 1,000- plus point drop in the Dow Jones.
The financial world is reeling today as stocks fell nearly across the board while nervous investors assessed the growing coronavirus threat. At some points, stocks fell more than 1,000 points Monday.
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. business economists say the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy is“ about right,” a sharp contrast to President Donald Trump’s attacks on the Fed for not cutting rates more aggressively. Last year at this time, the NABE noted, three-quarters of business economists thought the Fed was on the right track.
As the popularity of fee-based and fee-only financial advice continues to rise, many advisors are making the switch – even in nations like the U.S., which don’t require fee-only practices. But this transition can go awry if not well-planned.
The Securities and Exchange Commission claims a former AIG legal department employee tipped off his father of a pending insurance company acquisition and the elder man cashed in a $20,000 stock gain off the transaction.
Global stock markets followed Wall Street lower Friday after a spike in new virus cases in South Korea refueled investor anxiety about China’s disease outbreak. Benchmarks in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney retreated and London and Frankfurt opened lower. Sentiment was buoyed by stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data and rate cuts by China.
There are few things more rewarding than knowing you are contributing your time and money to further a worthy cause. In fact, one of the most gratifying aspects of my career has been watching people catch the vision of philanthropy.
Morgan Stanley will acquire E-Trade’s $360 billion in assets and 5.2 million customers as part of the merger, which Morgan Stanley can then turn around and use to start making loans. E-Trade has a popular online platform that helps businesses manage their employee stock plans, which will be merged into Morgan Stanley’s existing platform as well.
U.S. stocks shook off their latest virus-induced loss and returned to record heights Wednesday, with several familiar faces doing the heaviest lifting. It dropped Tuesday after warning that revenue this quarter would fall short of forecasts due to the viral outbreak centered in China.
A major worldwide beverage distributor has agreed to a $5 million fine to settle a complaint brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it manipulated inventory and misled investors.
