The Weekly Insight

We had a longtime friend of the firm who was famous for his tagline: “Let’s make it weird!”. He loved the awkward or absurd. Well, he would have loved last week. Markets trying to figure out how to digest the incoming economic information while at the same time processing the conviction of a former President – and current presidential candidate – on 34 felony counts was, if nothing else, weird. Weird in the market means uncertainty. And uncertainty means volatility. 

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-its-getting-weird/

It’s been a tremendously good start to the year in markets. But with the Fed hitting the delay button and the election season upon us, the potential for volatility is rising. This week we made some significant changes in our portfolio strategies to address these concerns.

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-it-could-be-an-interesting-summer/

There’s an old saying in the market: “Sell in May and go away”. If only it were that easy, we’d do it every year. But it’s not. This May, however, there seems to be a confluence of great market returns with some potential drivers of volatility that are forcing us to look closely at our portfolio strategies in the coming weeks.

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-taking-some-winnings/

As of this morning, the S&P 500 is just 40 points off its all-time high. It’s been a remarkably good run since the market bottomed in September of 2022. But upside is an easy conversation. Negative returns – and the exponential benefit of avoiding them – is a much harder conversation.

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-the-importance-of-negative-returns/

We have some big baseball fans at Insight. And those who are fans of the game know that the flashy plays – i.e. home runs – may put butts in the seats, but it’s the boring stuff like On Base Percentage (OBP) that wins games over a long season. There is a direct correlation between that idea and building a sustainable, long-lasting investment portfolio.

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-on-base-percentage/

It’s going to be a busy week in the market.  Normally that crops up when we have a Fed meeting – as we do on Wednesday.  But this Fed meeting is likely to be…uneventful.  Everyone already knows they’re not cutting rates.  Instead, the excitement this week comes from 175 companies – fully 35% - of the S&P 500 reporting earnings.  And if the trend from previous weeks continues, that should be very good for the market.

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-a-busy-busy-week/

In last week’s edition of the Weekly Insight, we encouraged you to buck the trend and take a “deep breath” as the market experienced a bit of volatility.  We’re still strongly in that camp – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be looking out into the future and assessing the risks over the horizon.
 
Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-the-next-recession/

The start of April hasn’t been fun (which seems like a silly thing to write on Tax Day…is it ever fun?). More stress about inflation.  War clouds looming in the Middle East. This is one of those moments when things in the market can start to feel scary.  But just how bad has it been?  And what kind of impact are these issues starting to have on the market?

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-deep-breaths/

The market had one of its worst weeks of the year last week. And the why was familiar – even if it was something we were hoping to have behind us. The economic news we received was just a bit too good for investors liking. PMI data, GDP expectations, and jobs data all combined to raise concerns that the Fed won’t be cutting interest rates.

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-a-sometimes-bubbly-path/

We’ve had a lot of different devils on our back the last four years: COVID, inflation, bear markets, etc., etc. Which is likely why this moment feels a bit…weird. As we enter a fairly unassuming earnings season (3.6% growth in earnings expected), there just isn’t a big problem lurking around the corner…yet. Will that leave us some runway for the next month or two? 

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-devil-on-your-back/