This week on Take 5, Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist at Carson Group, and Sonu Varghese, VP, Global Macro Strategist at Carson Group, discuss the state of the U.S. consumer. Talking points include: Retail sales and restaurant activity remain robust, supported by strong balance sheets …
The vivid pictures and appalling actions in Washington, D.C., Wednesday captured the attention of the globe, but not the interest of markets. The Democratic sweep in the Georgia Senate races didn’t attract a lot of interest from investors either. Neither were markets fazed by the first loss …
The S&P 500 wrapped up a surprising year with another strong week. The index of large-cap stocks, including dividends, climbed 1.5% and finished 18.4% higher for the year. Figure 1 shows the performance of the S&P 500, ex-dividends, in 2020 and just how far stocks have roared back f …
The new stimulus package approved by the House and Senate was signed by President Trump Sunday night. The president had proposed upping the aid to individuals to $2,000 after the bipartisan agreement had been reached. Garnering support for that proposal would likely have proven difficult an …
Congress passed the new $900 billion economic relief and spending bill on Monday. While most of the focus has been on a second round of relief payments to most Americans, there is plenty more in the 5,000-plus pages of the stimulus package.
Retirement is far off until it isn’t. This chapter of life can sneak up on just about anyone, and we do ourselves a favor to be as prepared as we can. Like anything involving the government, finances can be confusing, with different tax treatments, contribution limits, beneficiary rules and more.
The economic slowdown continues. Initial jobless claims climbed 885,000 last week. In the face of additional restrictions and heightened health risks, consumers have scaled back activity. Retail and food service sales dipped 1.1% last month (Figure 1).
