The Opening Bell

On May 19, 2017 Steve Grzanich shares today’s potential market drivers: No major economic reports out today The Labor Ministers of the G20 conclude their two day meeting President Trump prepares for his first foreign trip to the Middle East Iran holds its Presidential election  

On May 18, 2017 Steve Grzanich shares today’s potential market drivers: USDOL reports on the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits this week Freddie Mac reports on this week’s average mortgage rates Walmart, Alibaba, Ralph Lauren, Gap, & Salesforce report earnings today The House Weighs and Means Committee holds a hearing on tax reform today The Senate Banking Committee holds a hearing on international and domestic policy The FCC holds an open meeting today on net neutrality  

On May 17, 2017 Steve Grzanich shares today’s potential market drivers: Target reports its financial results today Google is expected to be releasing a new digital service today The House Agriculture Committee holds a hearing on the state of the rural economy AAA’s Memorial Day Forecast is released today detailing the travel numbers this year The National Geography Bee is underway today  

Farmers markets are gearing up for the summer, but this year the Farmers Market Coalition wants to expand their healthier reach to more than just neighborhood patrons. Steve discussed the new Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Program (FINI) with Jen Cheek (Executive Director of the Farmers Market Coalition) about having healthier food reach people in poorer neighborhoods. Then Steve looked toward how to cook that food, and Sun Buckets might be the way to do it. Steve and Bruce Elliot-Litchfield (CEO […]

On May 15, 2017 Steve Grzanich shares today’s potential market drivers: National Association of Home Builders releases the May Housing Index today US Treasury Department shares the International Money Flows Data for March Fox shares its 2017-2018 programming lineup this week  

The music industry is a difficult industry to break into, and disrupting it by connecting music lovers from around the world is even harder, but David Kalt is achieving that. Steve sat down with David (CEO of Reverb.com) to talk about the journey that started in Chicago which is now expanding to a presence across the world. Steve then looked at the transportation of the future after this past weeks Metropolitan Planning Council Round Table. Audrey Wennink (Director of Transportation […]

Another week is in the books, so Steve sat down with Paul Nolte (SVP, Sr. Portfolio Manager at Kingsview Asset Management) to take a look back and see how our money best fits in the national and international economy. The biggest takeaway is that there has been plenty of headlines to potentially shake markets, but things seem to have steadied sideways. However, what continues to fluctuate is the airline industry, so needles to say, that means Rick Seaney has been […]

The spring and summer doesn’t just bring better weather, but also an influx of industry conferences across the country. Steve sat down with this weeks Associated Bank Thought Leader, Chuck Garcia (Director of Commercial Deposits & Treasury Management). The two discussed the most recent conference Chuck attended, and found that the focus was heavily on fintech and the push for being more aggressive towards preventing fraud. Chuck also looked back to see how the start of this year’s economic predictions […]

Its been some time since Steve checked in with Chuck Garcia (Director of Commercial Deposits & Treasury Management at Associated Bank) so the two chatted about the focus of many conferences this season including fintech and the fighting of fraud. Steve then discussed a proposed tax on home renovation projects with the EVP of the Home Builders Association of Illinois, Bill Ward. Bill shared the origin of where and why the tax came about and the difference that the tax […]

On May 11, 2017 Steve Grzanich shares today’s potential market drivers: US Labor Department reveals the number of people that applied for unemployment benefits last week & the US producer price inflation for April The Org of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) releases its monthly oil market report The G7 Finance Countries meet in Italy today The European Commission publishes its Spring Economic Forecast Britain’s Central Bank releases its decision on interest rates Freddie Mac reports of weekly average mortgage rates […]