Market Commentary

Market Commentary

Viewpoints: January 2025

Welcome to our January 2025 Viewpoints, a monthly bulletin from PDS Planning to our valued clients and friends. Our goal with each issue of Viewpoints is to provide you with a wide variety of perspectives on life and wealth. Feel free to share with others. The Yield Curve is Back to Normal After being inverted for…

Market Commentary

January 2025 Market Commentary

2024 was a great year on a number of fronts, but was certainly a banner year for stocks as shown by the index returns below: Many would expect bonds to also perform well with the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates.  However, the aggregate bond index only gained 1.3% last year.  Yes, the Fed cut rates…

Market Commentary

December 2024 Market Commentary

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals were too good to pass up and it looks like most people agreed. According to Adobe Analytics, Black Friday shoppers spent $10.8 billion and Cyber Monday shoppers doled out $13.3 billion – the single biggest shopping day of all time. Taking the spending at face value, the general…

Market Commentary

Viewpoints: November 2024

Welcome to our November 2024 Viewpoints, a monthly bulletin from PDS Planning to our valued clients and friends. Our goal with each issue of Viewpoints is to provide you with a wide variety of perspectives on life and wealth. Feel free to share with others. By Drew Potosky, CFP® Believe it or not, International Stocks are…

Market Commentary

November 2024 Market Commentary

Votes are still being counted but the race is all but over. Donald Trump has been elected to be the next President. Markets were setting up for a big rally regardless of who won after a wave of de-risking took place in early fall. Once the election was called and the looming uncertainty became a…

Market Commentary

Viewpoints: October 2024

Welcome to our October 2024 Viewpoints, a monthly bulletin from PDS Planning to our valued clients and friends. Our goal with each issue of Viewpoints is to provide you with a wide variety of perspectives on life and wealth. Feel free to share with others.

Market Commentary

October 2024 Market Commentary

By Kurt Brown, CFA Posted: 10/9/2024 The 3rd quarter ended on a strong note for most asset classes with the S&P 500 up +5.9%, developed international stock up 6.5%, emerging markets up almost +9% and global bonds posting the best quarter in quite some time with a 7% bump. JPMorgan’s Hugh Gimber pointed that “the…

Market Commentary

Viewpoints: September 2024

Welcome to our September 2024 Viewpoints, a monthly bulletin from PDS Planning to our valued clients and friends. Our goal with each issue of Viewpoints is to provide you with a wide variety of perspectives on life and wealth. Feel free to share with others. By Drew Potosky, CFP®, Posted: 9/19/2024 Staying Invested – Election Year…

Market Commentary

September 2024 Market Commentary

By Drew Potosky, CFP®, Posted: 9/11/2024 Whether we want to believe it or not, investment markets are optimistic. During times of volatility and swings in the market prices it’s hard to remember. But markets generally go up. Dating back to the very beginning market prices have gone up. It hasn’t been a flat line of course…

Market Commentary

Viewpoints: August 2024

Welcome to our August 2024 Viewpoints, a monthly bulletin from PDS Planning to our valued clients and friends. Our goal with each issue of Viewpoints is to provide you with a wide variety of perspectives on life and wealth. Feel free to share with others. By Drew Potosky, CFP®, Posted: 8/23/2024 Where We Are Today The…

Beyond Your Finances, Market Commentary

The Case Against AUM-Based Fees

Posted: 8/20/2024 The Case Against AUM-Based Fees At PDS Planning, we believe you shouldn’t have to pay more for financial planning simply because you are worth more. Instead, we offer a flat, fixed-dollar fee that reflects our work rather than your net worth. Doing so allows us to provide you with a more effective financial…

Market Commentary

August 2024 Market Commentary

By Kurt Brown, CFA Posted: 08/08/2024 World markets have experienced quite the ride this past week.  You’ve likely seen headlines such as “Worst One Day Return in Japan since 1987!” and the “DOW drops by over 1,000 points” to name a few. Yes, markets have taken a step back, but as of this writing, the…

Market Commentary

Viewpoints: July 2024

Welcome to our July 2024 Viewpoints, a monthly bulletin from PDS Planning to our valued clients and friends. Our goal with each issue of Viewpoints is to provide you with a wide variety of perspectives on life and wealth. Feel free to share with others. By Drew Potosky, CFP®, Posted: 7/30/2024 Leading Indicators Update The year-over-year…

Market Commentary

July 2024 Market Commentary

By Drew Potosky, CFP®, Posted: 7/16/2024 A lot has already been said about the Mag7 stocks and the very prominent role they play in the S&P 500. They account for over 32% of the entire index and, with AI still a major theme, may continue to grow. Are we getting shades of the 2000 tech bubble?…

Market Commentary

Viewpoints: June 2024

Welcome to our June 2024 Viewpoints, a monthly bulletin from PDS Planning to our valued clients and friends. Our goal with each issue of Viewpoints is to provide you with a wide variety of perspectives on life and wealth. Feel free to share with others. By Drew Potosky, CFP®, Posted: 6/21/2024 Benchmarking Benchmarking is defined as…