September 3, 2019 August is over and done with. But we can say it was not the usual, “dog days of summer” August. Usually everyone is on vacation in August and the markets go through a lull. But this August there was plenty of fireworks. The stock market was extremely volatile with violent swings in […]
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August 27, 2019 With the Chinese/American trade war carrying over, the markets were encouraged for at least a period of time with the Administration’s decision to delay additional tariffs on certain goods until December 15. This decision was announced so that consumers were not hurt during the Christmas shopping season. Apparently, the season is ending […]
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August 20, 2019 We will file this commentary under the subject heading of — you can’t predict the future, especially in a world economy. First we had a solid but unspectacular report of economic growth for the second quarter. Then we had a solid but unspectacular jobs report. In between, the Federal Reserve Board’s Open […]
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August 13, 2019 It was the week of the “Feds,” as not only did our Federal Reserve Board lower rates by .25% last week, but also other Central Banks around the world weighed in. The Bank of Japan and Bank of England both kept their already low interest rates steady, one week after the European […]
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August 6, 2019 The first week in August was a block buster in terms of economic news. First, we had a reading on personal income and spending for the month of June. This report showed that consumers were still spending, but at a lower rate compared to the previous few months. This was the last […]
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July 30, 2019 What is happening with the job market? That is a question we have not had to answer for several years because job growth has been consistently positive. And though the job market continues to be strong in 2019, we can no longer use the word consistent from month-to-month. Since January we have […]
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July 16, 2019 By the middle of July, we are definitely in the midst of the heat of the summer. And many times, when the temperature rises, so does the heat of the markets. But not all markets are equal in this regard. For example, this summer the real estate markets are heating up because […]
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July 9, 2019 The data is out. First, we had the meeting of the Federal Reserve indicating that there are some members open to a rate cut. The markets are now predicting that such a cut may come as early as the end of this month. However, such a prediction would be predicated on evidence […]
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July 2, 2019 The celebration of July 4th tells us that one-half of 2019 is over. That is a sobering thought for those who believe that time is going too fast. It has certainly been a very interesting first half of the year. Thus far we have seen a very volatile, but positive, stock market; […]
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June 25, 2019 This has happened time and time again during the historic economic recovery. Since the Dow hit a low of just under 6,500 in March of 2009, the recovery of the stock market has been dramatic to say the least. At its peak this year, the Dow has crossed the 26,000 barrier several […]
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