A heightened level of market volatility across both the stock and bond markets may have made you wonder if this time is different. There are broader worries as well, but we're prone to paying more attention to recent alarms than news from long ago.
The three broad U.S. stock indexes ended July 2022 with their best returns since 2020. Considering the market’s dismal returns during the first half of 2022, we’re reminded how markets often surge surprisingly.
Welcome to the second half of 2022. What’s up next? As always, your guess is as good as ours. If anything, the past quarter has demonstrated how even familiar shores can shape-shift on us with each tide. Following are a few of the ways in which the financial landscape has been disorienting us lately.
There’s been a lot of talk about recessions lately: Whether one is near, far, or perhaps already here. Whether we can or should try to avoid it. What it even means to be in a recession, and how it’s related to current market turmoil. To put market and recessionary concerns in perspective, it might help to describe six ways a recession resembles a bad mood. There are some intriguing similarities!
Is rising inflation souring your financial plans? Protecting the bulk of your wealth is mostly about building and maintaining a well-structured investment portfolio with a few anti-inflation elements. Outside of your core portfolio, there is also a potentially sweet deal for turning some of inflation’s lemons into lemonade. We’re talking about U.S. Series I Saving Bonds (“I Bonds”). I Bonds are not a cure-all for inflation. And there is a thing or two to know about them before you decide whether to proceed.
In our last piece, we covered fund management costs. Next, let’s take a step back from the mutual funds, ETFs, or other holdings you decide to invest in. Where do these holdings live—and what does it cost to buy, sell, and hold them?