Categories:
- Asset allocation (41)
- Bill Walsh (15)
- Current Events (24)
- Elections (1)
- Industry News (3)
- Investments (28)
- Investor education (37)
- Kevin Mahn (41)
- Municipal bonds (2)
- Municipal Market Commentary (1)
- Personal finance (32)
- Portfolio strategy (66)
- Test Category (1)
- Trends (44)
- Uncategorized (34)
- Wall Street (24)
Category Archives: Current Events
Government Shutdown a Convenient Excuse for Market Pullback?
While it is true that there has not been a shutdown of the federal government in over 17 years, the current partial shutdown of the federal government is the 18th such shutdown since 1976. According to a recent “Investment Insights” article from Ashvin Chhabra of Merrill Lynch, the market impact, in the short term, of a U.S. government shutdown - which has been the defined result of a failure of Congress to pass a budget since 1981 - has been relatively insignificant and perhaps slightly positive for equity investors.Read more
Lack of U.S. Economic Growth May Slow Fed Tapering
While we are encouraged that the U.S. economy has been growing, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, for 15 consecutive quarters starting in the third quarter of 2009, we are concerned that the growth rate has been below that of previous economic recoveries and the economy appears to be stalling and struggling to get back above a 2% growth rate thus far in 2013. To this end, 1st quarter 2013 GDP was revised downward (the third such estimate) to an annual growth rate of just 1.8%. To put this into perspective, the GDP growth rate in the U.S. averaged 3.23% from 1947 until 2013.Read more
Understanding what the Federal Reserve said….and didn’t say
Based upon the outtakes of the two days of Federal Reserve meetings last week and the press conference with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that followed.... Here is what the Federal Reserve did tell the markets:Read more
Why Cyprus Matters to Your Investment Portfolio
If you never heard of the small island country in Eastern Europe called Cyprus prior to the last few weeks, you are not alone. The Republic of Cyprus is a popular destination for tourists along the Mediterranean Sea. Cyprus joined the European Union (EU) and the Eurozone in 2004 and 2008 respectively. The majority of their economy, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is derived from services from industries such as financial, real estate, and, of course, tourism.Read more
Fiscal Cliff Meltdown Averted….for now
A last minute fiscal cliff deal/compromise was reached in Washington to avert the initial stages of a potential economic meltdown which was received warmly by the markets given the extent of the relief rally that we have experienced thus far on the first trading day of the New Year. However, we, at Hennion & Walsh, do not believe that we are anywhere close to signaling “all clear†on the Fiscal Cliff front and that the deal in question, while it averted some of the feared, short-term draconian tax increases associated with going over the cliff, did nothing to address the longer term, more encompassing budget issues as the compromise delayed any decisions on spending cuts for another two months. The compromise also did not deal with the impending Debt Ceiling debate, which promises to have both political parties digging in on their ideological heels.Read more