The recent correction in the S&P 500 Index’s technology sector presents a unique challenge to markets following a historic stretch of outperformance as technology’s share of the market has ballooned in size.
On August 27, speaking at the Federal Reserve’s newly-virtual Jackson Hole conference, Chairman Jerome Powell announced two key adjustments to the Fed’s longer-term monetary policy strategy, coming as the culmination of its nearly two-year review of the monetary policy framework.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed settled actions against two public companies for violations that resulted in the improper reporting of quarterly earnings per share (EPS) that met or exceeded analyst consensus estimates.
Financial advisor Chris Lund is getting more referrals than ever, despite abandoning his public office months ago amid the coronavirus shutdown. Lund is among advisors who have successfully utilized social media and new ways of connecting with clients to keep their firms growing during the pandemic.
U.S. student loan debt hit an all-time high of nearly $1.5 trillion in November 2019, according to a Bloomberg analysis. In early 2020, the number of student loans in repayment reached $686.5 billion in the U.S., while $119.8 billion worth of student loans were in default.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Germany-based automaker BMW AG and two of its U.S. subsidiaries for disclosing inaccurate and misleading information about BMW’s retail sales volume in the U.S. while raising approximately $18 billion from investors in several corporate bond offerings.
Although pension investments have recovered from a March low point as equity markets rebounded during the summer, they’re likely to fall short of their 2020 targets by 4 to 5 percentage points, according to an analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has obtained an asset freeze and other emergency relief to halt a series of microcap market manipulation schemes that defrauded retail investors.
It is often strategy that determines whether advisors are successful or whether they underperform, said Chip Roame, managing partner of Tiburon Strategic Advisors. In particular 11 things that an advisor needs to figure out in order to be a success.
When seasons change, the major central banks meet. The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, and Bank of Japan all met in September to discuss their outlooks on the economy and monetary policy going forward. Key observations from the meetings include maintaining policy while keeping an eye on COVID-19.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Yinghang “James” Yang, a senior index manager at a globally recognized index provider, and his friend Yuanbiao Chen, a manager at a sushi restaurant, with perpetrating an insider-trading scheme that generated more than $900,000 in illegal profits.
As expected, the second quarter of 2020 was the most debilitating for the US economy since the government began keeping records in 1947 – and about four times worse than the weakest quarter of the Great Recession. The Bureau of Economic Analysis said real gross domestic product decreased at an annual rate of 31.7% in the second quarter of 2020.
The SEC’s complaint alleges that over a two-year period, Milton J. Dosal, Jr. raised nearly $100,000 from approximately 41 investors under the guise that he would day-trade stocks on their behalf. According to the complaint, Dosal, a car enthusiast, met a number of investors through car club events.
Yes, stocks are expensive. Most everyone along Wall Street agrees on that following their amazing return to records despite the still-raging pandemic. A third measuring stick, popularized by Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Shiller at Yale University, says the S&P 500 was recently trading at more than 30 times its average earnings.
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of advisors find that working from home has been just as effective as working from the office, and 86% report that they have been able to host productive virtual meetings with clients. Millennial advisors have been most successful during the transition to remote working, with 90% able to host productive virtual client meetings.
When preparing for retirement, it is important to understand the money cycle. Most people believe there are only two parts to it, but there really are three: accumulation, preservation and distribution. While you are working, you are in the accumulation phase.
Prospecting, obtaining referrals and securing business in financial services require a foundation of trust among multiple parties. You can use just five percent of your time to network with confidence – generating and maintaining likability and trust by elevating your professional presence.
Right now, the U.S. economy is far from healthy and inflation has been relatively subdued in recent years, which can hurt growth. This has prompted the Federal Reserve to pledge to keep interest rates at basically zero until at least through 2023 and try to spur inflation by allowing it to rise above the 2% sweet spot it targets for the economy.
Retirees and pre-retirees (ages 50-75) displayed a lack of knowledge around awareness of income in retirement, basic investment management and understanding of long-term care needs – yet those with a written retirement plan in place reported feeling more prepared to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic than their counterparts did.
Analysts have many ways to measure whether a stock is over- or under-valued, rather than simply looking at its price. Because stocks tend to move with corporate profits over the long term, one favored method is to divide a stock’s price by how much profit per share the company made over the prior 12 months.
Across the United States, permanent job losses doubled from 1.4 million to 2.8 million over the last four months, said Michael Hicks, director of Ball State University’s Center for Business and Economic Research. The job loss tops all previous recessions except the Great Recession just over a decade ago.
Stocks closed lower on Wall Street Wednesday after a rally following the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate policy update faded in the final hour of trading. The Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged had been widely expected by Wall Street and continues the central bank’s policy of unprecedented support for financial markets.
Stocks are ticking higher on Wall Street Wednesday, ahead of a decision on interest-rate policy by the Federal Reserve scheduled for the afternoon. One of the primary reasons Wall Street has roared back to record heights despite the still-raging pandemic is the immense aid the Federal Reserve is providing.
Today’s retirees, and those of tomorrow, have had a sense of purpose their entire lives– and they don’t intend to give it up just because they’ll no longer be working full time. In fact, 55% of recent retirees said retirement is the time for “a new chapter in life,” compared with just 22% who said it was “a time for rest and relaxation,” according to a new survey.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Park View School, Inc., a state-funded, nonprofit charter school operator based in Prescott Valley, Ariz., and its former President, Debra Kay Slagle, with misleading investors in an April 2016 municipal bond offering.
—Federal Reserve policymakers will meet this week for the first time since they significantly revised the Fed’s operating framework in ways that will likely keep short-term interest rates near zero for years to come. But the statement that Fed policymakers release Wednesday is expected to contain revisions that reflect sweeping changes.
A Colorado court recently found in favor of Great-West in a 2016 lawsuit claiming the insurer had charged “excessive fees” to its retirement plan participants. The case outcome is good news for insurers wary of increasing regulation focused on retirement plans and rollovers.
After virtually no volatility since March, market-watchers got a heavy dose of it with the recent three-day 10% correction in the NASDAQ—one of the fastest corrections ever, and the fastest ever from a record high. Historically, the NASDAQ has tended to rise after fast corrections. What will happen this time?
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced charges Friday against five Atlanta-based individuals, including film producer Ryan Felton, rapper and actor Clifford Harris, Jr., known as T.I. or Tip, and three others who each promoted one of Felton’s two allegedly unregistered and fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs).
A look at some of the key business events and economic indicators upcoming this week: Wall Street expects that FedEx’ s latest quarterly report card will show mixed results. The Federal Reserve delivers its latest interest rate policy update and economic assessment Wednesday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that the court-appointed receiver has begun the final $1 billion distribution to investors in connection with the SEC’s action against defendants Paul Greenwood, Steven Walsh, and their affiliated WG Trading entities.
—Stocks are trying for another comeback on Wall Street Friday, as a tumultuous week of big swings comes to a close. Momentum has been lightning-quick to shift on Wall Street recently, and a similar morning gain for the S&P 500 on Thursday gave way to a 1.8% loss for its fourth drop in five days.
The past week has seen continued improvement with the coronavirus, with the case growth rate down to new lows and case growth below 30,000 per day for the first time since June 21. The pandemic remains under control, and things are still getting better. The control measures are working.
Technology and energy companies led a broad sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday that wiped out nearly all of the market’s gains from a strong rally the day before. The S&P 500 lost 1.8% after having been up briefly by 0.8% in the early going. Energy companies fell the most as the price of U.S. crude oil prices dropped 2%.
If you think your tax rate will be higher when you take withdrawals in the future, you should opt for the Roth and pay your taxes now. However, if you expect your tax rate will be lower in the future than it is today, you should choose a traditional IRA and push off the tax bill.
Expect rates to remain low for a while. The Federal Reserve said it would keep its benchmark interest rate near zero for as long as it takes until the economy starts to recover from the coronavirus crisis, indicating it may take several years.
With the S&P 500 Index up more than 50% since the March lows and stocks pricing in an optimistic recovery in the economy and corporate profits, we believe stocks may be due for a pullback—and the drop that occurred September 3–4 may be the start of it. Here are some other things to look out for in the weeks ahead.
The firm predicts that interest rates will remain low, with the Federal Reserve not raising its federal funds rate for at least five years. And, despite several emerging forces trying to raise inflation, it expects it to remain below central bank targets as these forces are offset by the impact of several variables.
As the severity of COVID-19 continues to alter America’s workforce, investment advisories across the country have transitioned to the work-from-home model. From Wall Street to Main Street, we have seen a seismic shift in culture to ensure safety among employees and the public.
The SEC charged Daniel Kamensky, co-chair of the unsecured creditors committee in the Neiman Marcus Group Ltd. LLC Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, with abusing his position on the committee to attempt to benefit a New York-based management firm that he founded and where he served as managing partner and portfolio manager.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently announced with much fanfare that the Federal Reserve would tolerate periods of inflation above 2% to compensate for failing to reach that target much of the last two decades. During World War II, the Fed kept interest rates low to enable the Treasury to finance huge deficits.
Disruption and change are two of the most enduring constants in the financial services industry. COVID-19 represents an extreme example of this, but other challenges like recessions, market crashes and geopolitical events lurk just around the corner.
The nation is awaiting a vaccine that can halt the COVID-19 pandemic in its tracks, allowing life – and the battered U.S. economy – to return to normal. But a new study suggests the crisis has generated fears that are likely to dampen risk-taking and economic output for decades by increasing the “perceived probability of an extreme, negative shock in the future.”
Our research suggests that people can respond to persistently low interest rates by delaying Social Security and changing the way they save for retirement. First, low interest rates make it more attractive to delay claiming Social Security, which can be obtained at any age between 62 and 70.
Even if inflation trends upward and rises above 2%, the new Fed policy permits it to not immediately tighten interest rates to slow expansion. The Fed’s objectives, which have at times been in conflict, are to maximize employment while keeping inflation low.
A second term for President Donald Trump would likely feature a continuation of the pro-growth policies from the first term of his administration, and importantly for financial markets, a continuation of the status quo.
The 2021 MDRT Executive Committee “focuses on supporting the industry, its members and their clients during unprecedented times” as Ian Green, Dip PFS, takes his place as 95th president and Gregory Gagne joins as secretary, the organization said in a news release.
No one involved with the program — from the IRS to Arizona business organizations to Washington think tanks — could say how many businesses will actually participate in the voluntary program, and how many workers might be affected.
Nearly half (49%) of respondents say their monthly spending has decreased over the course of the last year. Among that group, more than half (53%) say they are spending less because they are worried about the current economic situation and another 26% are spending less because they say their monthly income has decreased.
What a month August was, with the S&P 500 Index up more than 7%, for the best August since 1984. Not to be outdone, this is the first time in history August saw two separate 6-day (or more) win streaks. The S&P 500 gained 16 days in the month, for the most since 16 in April 2019. But now September is here…
Financial adviser Dean Vagnozzi says a federal lawsuit criticizing lender Par Funding and Vagnozzi’s ties to the firm could end up hurting investors in his unrelated funds, but the court-appointed receiver in the case says Vagnozzi’s recent actions make him hard to trust.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged two Maryland companies Friday and their principals for a scheme that allegedly defrauded approximately 1,200 investors, many of them African immigrants, of more than $27 million.
New joint research from the Money Management Institute and Aon, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, finds that the most successful financial advisors, those defined as managing more than $500 million in assets, are taking advantage of the digital tools.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. has agreed to pay more than $67 million to settle charges that it violated the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
The central bank just revised the goals of its monetary policy. The laymen’s translation? If you didn’t think rates were going to be low for a long-time, you were not listening. Cheap money is not a fad, people. Mortgage-rate cuts, for example, gave house hunters 25% more buying power in less than two years. That’s not ending soon.
Stocks edged further into record heights on Wall Street Thursday after the Federal Reserve made a major overhaul to its strategy, one that could keep interest rates low for longer. Prices for stocks, bonds and gold made several U-turns after Fed Chair Jerome Powell gave a highly anticipated speech.
For decades, the Federal Reserve made clear its readiness to raise interest rates at the earliest signs of creeping inflation. In a sign of how vastly the U.S. economic landscape has changed, Chairman Jerome Powell may be on the verge of sending a wholly different message this week: That the Fed plans to leave its key rate pinned near zero.
Even as the stock market is at all-time highs, interest rates are close to all-time lows. This scenario makes sense, as lower rates generally equate to more valuable stocks. As such, this is indeed a condition that has supported values.
The job interview is crucial to achieving career success. While you may know the answers to personal questions when you sit quietly in a room, the pressure of an interview can cause you to second guess your answer and lead to a less than organized response.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has filed an emergency action against Florida-based investment adviser Coral Gables Asset Management LLC and its sole owner, David C. Coggins, in connection with an alleged fraudulent offering.
To come up with its findings, the personal finance website says it examined data from 525 U.S. cities that are home to at least 65,000 people. It looked at tax information as well as figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and FBI, results show.
Baby boomers should have at least $1 million of investable assets to generate adequate income for the duration of their life expectancy, according to a report by the Insured Retirement Institute. Note, that figure doesn’t even include Social Security benefits.
A potential Biden presidency may mean a shift from some pro-growth policies of the Trump administration, it’s possible any negative market impact may be muted. Economic forces tend to dominate policy, though policy still matters, and historically, markets and the economy have shown little preference for either Republican or Democratic leadership.
The COVID-19 pandemic has unsettled the country’s employment picture for months and will likely continue to do so for a while. However, the nature and terminology of this disruption varies greatly among individuals – some have seen their jobs disappear, others have been “furloughed” and still others have been offered an early retirement.
Although the 2020 FPA Digital Annual Conference will be online, the association and Annual Conference Task Force has designed a program that not only provides attendees with all-important CE credits, but will also deliver content based on the practice, business, and profession of financial planning, organizers say.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 stock index hit a record high. The next day, Apple became the first U.S. company in history to be valued at more than $2 trillion. Donald Trump is, of course, touting the stock market as proof that the economy has recovered from the coronavirus. Is it really?
Stocks are drifting again on Wall Street Friday, following a mixed set of data on the global economy, as a record-breaking but wishy-washy week of trading closes out. It followed up on losses across Europe after reports there indicated a slowdown in its economies.
Many advisors, new and seasoned, are looking for a mentor to help guide them into the next step of their career. No matter how much success you’ve achieved, there is always potential to reach the next level in your expertise.
At 10.2%, the unemployment rate last month remained near the worst levels reached during and shortly after the Great Recession. Last month, the number of unemployed people who have lost their jobs permanently reached 2.9 million.
It took a while, but the S&P 500 Index finally made a new all-time high, coming all the way back from the vicious 34% bear market in less than six months. The bear officially lasted one month and took five months to recover the losses. Usually when there’s a bear market during a recession, it takes 30 months to recover those loses.
At the end of July, the American Association of Individual Investors announced a four-year low in the Investor Sentiment Survey. This marks a jump in optimism when compared with the end-of-July survey, which ranked among the 40 lowest readings ever recorded by the AAII Sentiment Survey. “Bullish sentiment has been below average since mid-March when the…
Apple has become the first U.S. company to boast a market value of $2 trillion as technology continues to reshape a world where smartphones are like appendages and digital services are like instruments orchestrating people’s lives.
The U.S. central bank has found in a recent study that the rising monopolistic market power of dominant American companies is leading to an array of economic ills, such as income and wealth inequality. The 41-page report, titled ” Market Power, Inequality, and Financial Instability,” spells out where companies are impacting the economy.
Only one in five of the 143 largest statewide public retirement systems in the U.S. are resilient, a new analysis published by the bipartisan nonprofit Equable Institute shows. And five states California, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas account for more than 50 percent of unfunded liabilities.
The U.S. and global economies have shown some improvements since the spring, when business lockdowns were widespread, but they are nowhere close to fully healed. The Federal Reserve and the U.S. government get a lot of the credit for the rally after pouring trillions of dollars into the economy.
LPL Financial, a leading retail investment advisory firm, independent broker-dealer and registered investment advisor (RIA) custodian, today announced that the firm has partnered with Slack, a leading channel-based messaging platform, to give advisors and their teams new tools to communicate in real time.
Corporate America delivered on expectations and then some during a second quarter earnings season that some are calling the biggest upside surprise ever. We recap the results, share five key takeaways for investors, and discuss our near-term outlook for stocks with the S&P 500 Index near record highs.
Wall Street is close to a record on Monday, as investors are apparently unfazed by the collapsed stimulus negotiations in Washington, renewed US-China tensions and the ongoing pandemic. By some definitions, this would ring in the end of the 2020 pandemic bear market, making it the shortest in history at just 1.1 months.
Half of all Americans would experience financial hardship if they had to cover an emergency expense of $1,000 or less in the next 30 days, according to a new Charles Schwab Financial Literacy Survey conducted by The Harris Poll. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults chose financial education as the most important supplemental graduation requirement.
Interest rates recently hit all-time lows as the Federal Reserve made cuts to mitigate the financial impacts of COVID-19. If your client is a homeowner with a monthly mortgage payment, they might be wondering if now is a good time to refinance.
There is a sufficient amount of coins out there– $47.8 billion worth, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury– but as many Americans work and shop from home, they sit in jars and cans, effectively out of circulation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former Hertz CEO and Chairman Mark Frissora with aiding and abetting the company in its filing of inaccurate financial statements and disclosures. Frissora has agreed to settle the charges and repay Hertz nearly $2 million in incentive-based compensation.
Independent wealth management advisor Jordan Schwartz of Strategic Wealth Designers joined the newscast to help make sense of the justified pricing in the stock market. The Fed continues to pump money into the stock market as they have shown they are willing to do whatever it takes to keep some sense of balance and order in a world with little of either, “…
Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was among a team of advisers who briefed Joe Biden on Thursday about the economic fallout from the coronavirus. Kamala Harris, participated in the briefing from separate, socially distanced tables at a hotel in Wilmington, Delaware.
Released today, the July 2020 LegalShield Law Index, a suite of leading indicators of the economic and financial status of U.S. households and small business, saw its Consumer Financial Stress Index remain little changed in July, despite widespread job loss since February, as Americans awaited the outcome of negotiations to extend federal fiscal support.
A top official at the Federal Reserve criticized the decision by many states to reopen businesses this spring before getting the virus fully under control, and said those choices have hindered an economic recovery in the U.S.. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has emphasized generally that recovery from the recession depends on conquering the pandemic.
Politics has less of an effect on the economy and, therefore, the markets than we think. Since 1900, according to Bespoke Research, the average gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been 4.8 percent per year, reflecting the economy as a whole. Decade after decade, markets have moved ahead as the economy grew, regardless of the party in power.
Family offices’ venture portfolios returned an average of 14% in the 12 months prior to the survey. Fund investments generated 16% returns and direct deals where family offices had minority stakes returned 17%. These returns met or exceeded expectations for more than 85% of respondents.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday that Interactive Brokers LLC will pay an $11.5 million penalty to settle charges it repeatedly failed to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) for U.S. microcap securities trades it executed on behalf of its customers.
Any way we look at it, the U.S. faces a dire and desperate situation. If we look at the percentage change in real GDP from a year ago, U.S. numbers shrank by 9.5% in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the second quarter of 2019.. Even as quarantine restrictions have been lifted, we are not seeing the economy bounce back.
The stock market continues to do quite well. The S&P 500 Index, which has risen four straight months, has returned 5% so far in 2020, despite probably the worst pandemic in the United States in 100 years and one of the sharpest economic contractions since the Great Depression. How does that makes sense?
Automated transfers, such as 401(k) contributions from your paycheck, can help people save with little effort. But if your clients are looking for more control, think about making manual transfers to a savings account as well.
President Donald Trump isn’t telling the full story when it comes to executive orders on coronavirus relief payments and health care. Over the weekend, the president suggested that his move to bypass Congress with executive action calling for up to $400 in weekly unemployment assistance would mean immediate cash in hand for laid-off Americans.
Financial abuse occurs in 99% of all abusive relationships, making this one of the most important types of abuse to watch for. Advisors have a special ability – and therefore a special responsibility – to detect and combat financial abuse.
The U.S. Census Bureau continues to gather information using the Household Pulse Survey and has found that during the pandemic, 51.1% of American adults live in households which have experienced a loss in employment income. Additionally, 35.2% of American adults expect to experience a loss in employment income, according to the Household Pulse Survey…
As the US entered August, the economic damage from the necessary social distancing and closure protocols to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease began to hit. The US economy is suffering an even bigger shock than after the 9/ 11 terror attacks or the 2008 financial crisis.
Blackstone today announced that private equity funds managed by Blackstone have reached a definitive agreement to acquire Ancestry from Silver Lake, GIC, Spectrum Equity, Permira, and other equityholders for a total enterprise value of $4.7 billion.
Financial Planning Association (FPA) Knowledge Circles are gathering places for like-minded planners who want to engage in dialogue about best practices and trends on particular topics. The Knowledge Circles, very much like “sections” in law or business, allow for more in-depth examination of issues, financial planning resources, regulations, etc.
While debates over masks and whether to reopen have dominated headlines, more than three-quarters of respondents support enacting state laws to require mask wearing in public at all times. And nearly 60 percent said they would support a nationwide order making it mandatory to shelter at home for two weeks.
Anxiety about long-term retirement savings is up according to a new survey from Schwab Retirement Plan Services, and so is participant engagement. On average, these 401 participants believe they need to save $1.9 million for retirement, an increase of 12% from the $1.7 million reported in last year’ s survey.
