Affinity "Mark" et Minute

Affinity “Mark” et Minute – May 21, 2015

Investment Commentary – May 20, 2015
Dow – 18,285.40 (5/20/15 close)
S&P 500 – 2,125.85 (5/20/15 close)
10-year Treasury – 2.25% (5/20/15 close)

U.S. equities advanced last week, with the S&P 500 Index notching new record closes on Thursday and Friday.

A pullback in bond yields, more mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A) activity and a wave of companies buying back shares all aided stocks last week.

In addition, in what’s becoming a bit of a pattern, last week brought little evidence of inflation, despite rising expectations for a spike.

Analysts believe inflation will remain low for a variety of reasons: a modest recovery, constrained wages and the fact that the recent rally in oil may not have much further to go.

This environment of good, but not great, growth, range-bound oil prices and low inflation supports our basic views on investment positioning.

Analysts suggest investors stick with a few key themes: a preference for stocks over bonds, a healthy allocation to international equities and an opportunistic stance in fixed income.

Lower than expected numbers on international trade, manufacturing and wholesale inventories, and retail sales likely will push the second estimate of 1Q 2015 real GDP into negative territory. Despite some measured weakness this quarter, we see the expansion continuing at its moderate pace.

Job growth last month shifted to higher-paying positions in a sign of a broadening labor market recovery. Professional and business services, construction and health care led the solid 223,000 job gains reported by the Labor Department last Friday.

The views presented are not intended to be relied on as a forecast, research or investment advice and are the opinions of the sources cited and are subject to change based on subsequent developments. They are not a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy.
Disclosures:
https://www.blackrock.com/investing/insights/weekly-commentary https://www.jpmorganfunds.com/cm/Satellite?pagename=jpmfVanityWrapper&UserFriendlyURL=contentdet_module&smID=1159383786125
https://www.ivyfunds.com/perspectives/ivy-weekly-newsletter

About the Author: Mark Roberts

In addition to managing clients’ money and giving investment and diversification advice, Mark offers something that “the other guys” don’t - a unique approach to Retirement Tax Strategies and distribution. Time and time again, Mark meets with new clients who tell him they have a great relationship with their financial advisor but have never been offered information on this kind of approach to securing their financial futures. Mark has taken this feedback to heart and works tirelessly to ensure that his strategies focus on taxes and distribution. Mark started selling insurance for a major insurance company right out of high school to help put himself through college. After graduating with a degree in finance, he dove into estate planning on the financial side to set himself apart from other financial advisors. However, as changes were made to estate tax laws over time, Mark shifted his focus to income tax strategies. Mark’s philosophy is “the blue prints are more important than the wall paper or carpet.” The wall paper and carpet represent products like investments and insurance policies, whereas the blue prints represent the strategies. Once strategies that truly fit the client’s needs are put in place, our focus can shift to providing you with the right products. According to Mark, “It doesn’t matter what carpet we use if the walls are not in the right place.” Our approach to money management is designed to generate the largest alpha (quality) with the lowest standard deviation and beta (risk). By doing this, we help provide clients with the highest return on the lowest risk. Generating income for our retirees is also very important. Because withdrawing money from your portfolio hurts the account rather than helping it, our goal is to design income strategies to harm the portfolio the least making the money last longer.

Affinity “Mark” et Minute – May 21, 2015

Affinity “Mark” et Minute – May 21, 2015

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About the Author: Mark Roberts