After months of simmering inflation reports, it looks like inflation finally eased slightly in April.1 Are prices stabilizing? Can we breathe a sigh of relief? Let’s dig a little deeper. What’s inside the latest inflation report? Economists typically look at two major inflation gauges: the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index […]

Is a zombie recession coming? (By that, we mean that renewed fears of a “hard landing” recession have emerged from the grave and are walking among us.)1 Many analysts were convinced that the U.S. economy could achieve a coveted “soft landing,” but they might be overly optimistic. Want to skip the economics? Scroll to the […]

New research has found a new “magic” retirement savings number. (We explain how inflation factors in below.) We say “magic” because if you put 10 people in a room, you’ll get 10 different opinions about how much you should save for retirement. And this estimate is no different. Northwestern surveyed 4,588 adults and found: The […]

The stock market rocketed to new record highs after the latest FederalReserve meeting.1 Will markets continue to rise? Will stocks take a dive after the recent record highs? What could the Baltimore bridge collapse mean for the economy? Let’s discuss. Why are stocks on such a tear? Despite some bumps in the road, markets have […]

Quick question: which behavioral bias do you think is the mostdangerous? Is it our tendency to follow the herd and chase trends? (This one playsout a lot in the stock market.) Maybe the human desire to avoid losses even at the expense of the biggerpicture? (Another one that hurts investors.) Perhaps our propensity to oversimplify […]

The S&P 500 broke the 5,000 level recently for the first time in history as investors embraced euphoria and rallied.1 And then tumbled as investors got jittery.2 Then yo-yo’d a bit more. Fear and greed are the two halves of the investor psychology coin. When investors are feeling greedy and exuberant, they buy in the […]

It’s official. The bear market is behind us. The S&P 500 finally hit a new record for thefirst time since 2022. And then notched multiple higher highs in the days thatfollowed.1 That means it has passed the final bar to formalizethe bull market in stocks that started after the October 2022 market low.2 What’s a […]

As we kick off 2024, the latest data is raising some concerns about inflation. Let’s dive into some data and take a look.   Inflation is still one of the biggest risk factors we’re watching this year. Here’s why. While inflation is still well below its 2022 peak, the data shows that the fight toward […]

How did 2023 go for you? Let’s take a moment to review some of the year’s major market and economic trends. (Before I sign off, I’ll also pass along a few thoughts about what 2024 could have in store.) AI became a major tech trend1 After ChatGPT launched in late 2022, the AI space race […]

Quick question: What do you usually find yourself reading? News summaries, headlines, and quick bits to keep yourself updated? Or longer reads like books and articles? We’re ever more inundated with information that’s eager to capture our attention. We click because we want to stay up to speed and avoid missing out. The trouble is, […]