The Weekly Insight

We all have had formative experiences in our youth.  Maybe it was that first job, or successes in academics or athletics.  For the team at Insight, one of most memorable (not always in a good way!) experiences was our time working at McDonald’s.  Everyone should have to flip a burger when they’re young.  It teaches you a lot.  But what we didn’t imagine at the time was that the price of a McDonald’s cheeseburger might be able to tell us something about the economy and the markets. 

Click here for the full length memo:  https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-im-lovin-it/

There was a great deal of fretting in the market last week.  Higher than expected PCE numbers, a renewed focus on Ukraine, and growing expectations of rate hikes weighed on all indices.  There is habit in the market of having a short-term bias – a focus on the latest news of the moment.  But sometimes we need to peel back the onion and look deeper.  In this week’s episode, we take a deeper look at the health of consumers and businesses – over the long-term – to see how they might be weathering the time we’re in.  We hope you’ll listen in.

Three years ago this week was the first time we wrote one of these memos. 156 weeks – and 156 memos – later, we will be the first to admit it is sometimes hard to produce a topic to talk about each week. What is important? What will you – our readers – find interesting? Over the last several years, the entire world has been consumed by creating “content”. The financial media is no different.

It has not exactly been a three-year period full of good news. It's understandable, then, when we have a good start to the year – as we have so far in 2023 – we’re all waiting for the other shoe to drop.  This week we want to dive into that “other shoe” and why, even if it does drop, we still think portfolios can have a strong recovery year.  Let’s dive in.

There have been many “post-Fed” commentaries in these pages over the last year, an indication of just how important interest rate policy has been to the market and the economy.  We’ve digested and expounded on countless Powell-isms and tried to read the tea leaves of where the Fed is going. Listen in to hear more on this week's episode.

Read More:
https://insightwealthgroup.com/hearing-what-we-want-to-hear/

This has been a weird start to the year.  Sentiment – at least as reported on the news – is decidedly negative.  Market performance? Just the opposite.  But the markets seem to be on path for a phenomenon which has historically indicated bullish sentiment.  We walk through that trigger – and what may be standing in its way – in this week’s edition of the Weekly Insight.

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insig…the-golden-cross/

There’s a tug of war going on with market sentiment right now. The earnings season has kicked off and – at least last week – it wasn’t pretty. But the broader economic data we’re seeing – including last week’s PMI read – keep looking better and better. The result? A choppy week in the market as neither side is coming out the victor. What is going sway this battle for momentum in the market?

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-tug-of-war/

It's been a good start to the year in the markets. But a lot of “pundits” are warning of a drop in earnings or an earnings recession. That’s a scary term – but what does it mean for market performance?

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-bad-earnings-good-markets/

Anyone thinking we would ease into 2023 was given a wake-up call last week. The long and drawn out battle for the House Speakership was the big news story – and while it didn’t impact markets directly, the concessions made to get Kevin McCarthy the Speaker’s gavel may have lingering effects. And then there was the jobs report – something that has caused drama many times in recent months. 

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-starting-with-a-bang/

It’s tempting to write the “Crystal Ball” piece this time of year. But we’re not fortune tellers at Insight.  We can, however, pick out big trends and begin to understand how they might impact the market in the coming year.

Read more here: https://insightwealthgroup.com/the-weekly-insight-big-trends/