Heritage Financial Advisory

The major markets closed mostly higher with emerging markets being the exception. The greatest gains were in the Nasdaq as the information technology sector was a significant outperformer.

But in a pleasant change of pace, all 11 sectors closed the week in the green. And as impressive as the gains were in the IT space, they were shadowed by the gains in Energy.

After weeks of turmoil, energy prices significantly recovered last week. The GSCI Crude Oil index added 17.5% by Friday’s close. However, the index is still down -76.42% year to date.

This was a similar story for the Unleaded Gasoline Index. Gasoline added 24.45% last week after average nationwide gasoline prices recovered slightly from the 4-year low of $1.655 marked the week of April 27th. As it stands now, the May 11th, reading of $1.75 is still well below the 52-week average of $2.38 a gallon.

The week ended with the release of April’s BLS Employment Situation Report. The headline reading of a decline of 20.5 million jobs was in line with the weekly initial jobless claims data being reported by the Department of Labor. As a result, the unemployment rate rose to 14.7%, a level not seen since the Great Depression.

One somewhat positive aspect of this report was the number of unemployed persons who reported as being on temporary layoff increased about ten-fold to 18.1 million. In other words, about 80% of the people who are currently on unemployment, only view it as temporary.

Mike Desepoli of Heritage discusses key events we saw in the past quarter, like the Covid 19 pandemic and the ensuing government response, and how we think they'll affect markets over the next few months.

Lou Desepoli of Heritage discusses key events we saw in the past quarter, like the Covid 19 pandemic and the ensuing government response, and how we think they'll affect markets over the next few months. 

With the close of one year and the beginning of another, it's a great time for us to quickly update you on the markets.

With the close of one year and the beginning of another, it's a great time for us to quickly update you on the markets.

Investors had a lot to be thankful for last week as the major markets traded to fresh all-time highs. The Nasdaq gave the markets a belated Christmas gift on Thursday as it crossed the threshold of 9000 for the first time.  There was a reported increase in retail sales this holiday season, and that was buttressed by the SpendingPulse report from MasterCard which reported a 3.4% year over year increase, excluding autos. Online Sales grew even more with an increase of 18.8% compared to last year.  The late Thanksgiving holiday was highlighted as a factor in retail stores utilizing discounts and sales earlier in the season to recoup lost gift buying time in brick and mortar stores.  With only hours of trading left in 2019, overall, the markets look to record one of the better returns in history. As we look forward to 2020, we’d like to wish you a Happy New Year.

The Major Markets closed mostly higher as the Nasdaq, Dow Jones, and S&P 500 all closed higher with each seeing new all-time highs last week.   

Furthermore, the S&P 500 traded over 3100 for the first time ever on Tuesday, followed by the Dow crossing over 28,000 for the first time on Friday.

Markets saw new heights last week as the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ both registered all-time new highs.  The weekly gains were fueled by a plethora of earnings, economic reports, Fed action, and general geopolitical optimism. 3rd quarter earnings continue to be reported over the next couple of weeks, with the greatest number to be released this week. As it stands, roughly three fourths of the S&P 500 earnings have been released with three quarters of those firms beating expectations.