It’s only the first week of February, but lots has already happened! On top of everyone and their brother getting sick, a couple major market shakers have already come and, potentially, gone. DeepSeekOn January 27th, news broke that a Chinese startup called DeepSeek developed and trained an AI reasoning-model for only $6 million (though later…
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…
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.
October 2022 PDS Planning Market Commentary Volatility has certainly picked up, with 25% of all trading days so far this year experiencing declines of 1% or more. According to Bespoke Investments, the only other post-WWII years with a higher frequency were 1974 (26.6%), 2002 (28.6%), and 2008 (29.6%). Market performance has deviated far from its…
August 2022 PDS Planning Market Commentary The dog days of summer are upon us, which means it’s probably hot and humid, teachers and students are getting ready for the new school year, and investors are historically treading water. Since 1980, the S&P 500 during the month of August has proven to be a lackluster month,…
July 2022 PDS Planning Market Commentary We’ve made it to the halfway mark and only two asset classes have posted a positive return – commodities and cash. But the case can be made cash is only positive on paper since yields are well below the current inflation measures. It’s easy to see the markets and…
June 2022 PDS Planning Market Commentary JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, captured many headlines last week when he said “you’d better brace yourself for an upcoming hurricane.” He continued that “right now, it’s kind of sunny, things are doing fine, and everyone thinks the Fed can handle this. That hurricane is right out there, down…
May 2022 PDS Planning Market Commentary Inflation continues to spread throughout the entire economy and puts many, especially lower income citizens, in a difficult position. The most recent inflation data suggested an 8.5% increase compared to a year ago, which marks the highest inflation levels since the 1980’s. The core CPI, which excludes the more…
March 2022 PDS Market Commentary With Russia’s invasion, the world is clearly in a different position than it was at year-end. Markets were already struggling in 2022 as investors grappled with record inflation and the Federal Reserve’s plan to consistently raise interest rates, but Russia’s invasion sent shockwaves throughout markets. As of today, oil has…
February 2022 PDS Market Commentary What a difference a few weeks can make in the equity market! Many investors were feeling invincible after 2021’s strong returns, especially within large cap domestic stocks. Some maybe even fell into the mindset that markets could only go up. Reality quickly sunk in as the S&P 500 fell by…
January 2022 Market Commentary Now that 2021 has come to a close, we look forward to 2022. Many banks and investment companies release their “expert” opinions on what we should expect from the market and economy in the coming year. We note a few of them below. When it comes to “expert” opinions, please remember…
December 2021 Financial Markets Commentary “With less than a month left in what has been an extraordinary (and mystifying) year on multiple fronts, stocks have maintained a largely uninterrupted trek higher (at the index level) in the face of myriad headwinds—not least being the mid-year surge in the delta variant, supply chain disruptions on a…
October 2021 Financial Markets Commentary Now that the first three quarters of 2021 are in the books, the holiday season will be here before you know it! If you are a last minute shopper, you may want to start the process earlier this year. Experts are warning of significant shipping delays. COVID exposed the downside…
Now that the Olympics have wrapped up, it created an incredible opportunity for the country to come together as one no matter the political affiliation and be proud to be an American. These elite athletes have dedicated countless days, weeks and years to their sports to be able to compete on the global stage,…
July 2021 Financial Markets Summary The first 6 months of 2021 have fortunately been much less eventful than the first 6 month of 2020. Stock markets around the world have been performing quite well with the S&P 500 up 15%, developed international 10% and emerging markets 8.5%. The unemployment rate has dropped significantly from the…
