Stocks closed out last week considerably higher as investors were pleased with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments as to our struggling economy and his decision to leave the door open for additional accommodation measures. Stocks pared losses throughout last Friday and turned higher for much of the afternoon session. At one point, the Dow was up 177 points before …
Thinking of a Hardship Distribution
Are you thinking about taking a hardship distribution from your 401k? For many Americans facing uncertain economic times, loans and hardship withdrawals from retirement savings are on the rise according to a recent study done by Fidelity Investments. While this may be the only option for some facing foreclosure or bankruptcy, there are a few things that need to be …
Putting Market Volatility In Perspective: Coping With Volatility
Watch this Video on Putting Market Volatility In Perspective: Coping With Volatility – presented by Forefield.
Fears of Global Slowdown Sends Stocks Lower
Just when you thought it was safe to tip your toe back into the equity markets, stock market investors were greeted with another ugly week of losses as worries about a global economic slowdown resurfaced. We started the week having largely recovered from the huge sell-off of the previous week, thanks to the downgrade of United States long-term debt by …
Putting Market Volatility In Perspective: Market Cycles
Watch this video on Putting Market Volatility In Perspective: Market Cycles presented by Forefield.
Jekyll & Hyde Markets Continue
After substantial losses during the previous week, the equity markets continued to show signs of massive volatility over the past five trading days, as this so-called “Jekyll & Hyde” market action continued. On the one hand the markets started off this past week poorly, but then hope for a new QE3 program on Tuesday helped the overall market put in …
The Relief Rally That Wasn’t
Just when all the market pundits were expecting a big relief rally after the passage of the new budget-ceiling package, equities dropped off a cliff, and sent most of the major stock indexes into ‘correction’ mode. It just wasn’t the long drawn out wrangling that went on in Washington over the debt ceiling that caused the drop, but a string …
The Two-Step Debt Tango
Given the back-and-forth movements between the Democrats and the Republicans as to solving the pending debt ceiling crises, you can almost say it’s become a ‘two-step’ tango dance, going back and forth. The major problem is that this bickering by our elected lawmakers happens to be going on when the economy is at risk of slipping into another murky recession. …