News

For the first time in a decade, there are more new home buyers than renters. There were 854,000 new-owner households formed in the first quarter of 2017, over double the 365,000 new-renter households. This means that people are now more apt to buy their own house rather than pay rent. What does this...

The Wall Street Journal reported on 4-18-2017 that ten big stocks in the S&P 500 stock index are having an outsized influence on the return of the overall index. Ten stocks are responsible for almost 53% of the 4.7% return in the S&P 500 Index so far this year. In other words, over half of...

In the first quarter of 2017 the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the quietest it has been in more than 50 years. The average daily move in the first quarter was 0.3185%. That was the smallest average move since the fourth quarter of 1965. The S&P 500 stock index was also equally calm, with an ...

On Wednesday, March 15, 2017 the US Federal Reserve increased interest rates by a quarter percentage point to a range between 0.75%-1%. They also indicated that they will raise rates two more times in 2017. Janet Yellen, Chairwoman of the US Federal Reserve, said that the Feds decided to raise rates...

Preferred stocks are sometimes referred to as “hybrids” because they share characteristics common to both stocks and bonds.  A preferred stock trades on an exchange, just like a common stock.  But it also trades around a par value, like a bond.  One of the benefits of owning preferred stocks ...

According to Investopedia, a growth stock is: “a share in a company whose earnings are expected to grow at an above-average rate relative to the market.”  Growth stocks typically do not pay a dividend.  Instead, these companies prefer to reinvest their earnings back into the company.  Growth ...

The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged when they met last week.  Earlier this year the Federal Reserve indicated that they plan on raising interest rates three times in 2017.  The next meeting for the Federal Reserve is March 14-15.  However, it is unlikely that they will raise rate...

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s preferred method of measuring inflation is the personal consumption expenditures price index.  This index rose 0.2% in December.  Over the past 12 months inflation has risen 1.6%.  This is important because it remains below the 2% inflation target of the Federal Reser...

On January 25, 2017 the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 20,068.  This is the first time that the index has closed above 20,000.  In addition, the S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ Index also closed at all-time highs.  With the financial markets up substantially from last November, where do ...