Welcome to Bob’s weekly Financial Spotlight
The radio show is every Friday at 5:30am on WCRN AM 83 Radio, and also available here for your convenience! Just press the play button below…
Posted in Financial Planning | Permalink | Comments »
Tags: economic forecast, financial markets, home, investment, market recovery, recession, retirement
Welcome to Bob’s weekly Financial Spotlight
The radio show is every Friday at 5:30am on WCRN AM 83 Radio, and also available here for your convenience! Just press the play button below…
Posted in Financial Planning | Permalink | Comments »
Tags: economic forecast, financial markets, market recovery, recession, retirement home investment
Welcome to Bob’s weekly Financial Spotlight
The radio show is every Friday at 5:30am on WCRN AM 83 Radio, and also available here for your convenience! Just press the play button below…
Posted in Financial Planning | Permalink | Comments »
Tags: economic forecast, financial markets, market recovery, recession, retirement home investment
Welcome to Bob’s weekly Financial Spotlight
The radio show is every Friday at 5:30am on WCRN AM 83 Radio, and also available here for your convenience! Just press the play button below…
Posted in Financial Planning | Permalink | Comments »
We seem to have put together a nice rally over the last couple of months. The market is up around 30% from the recent low set on March 9th. Although this is certainly good news, the real question is “Is this a suckers rally or is this the beginning of a long term upswing?” My position is that it might be both. I maintain that in the long run things will be fine but in the short run I believe we are still going to see a lot of volatility as there remains a great deal of uncertainty out there as it relates to the banking system, residential and commercial real estate, and the job market. However the level of pessimism that has permeated the markets over the last year or so has subsided significantly as of late. In fact, I am actually seeing some signs of optimism for a change.
For those of you who have not been paying close attention to the falling interest rate environment perhaps you should. Rates for mortgages have fallen dramatically. If you have a 30 year fixed rate mortgage at 5.5% or above, you might save yourself a nice chunk of change so to speak by refinancing. The difficulty right now is lending standards have tightened and property values have fallen as hard as interest rates so many who would like to refinance simply cannot qualify.
For those who have been considering the purchase of a retirement/vacation home, now might be a very good time to at least begin your search and get your financial ducks in a row. Prices have been falling and as I mentioned above, interest rates are low. I cannot say that prices in residential real estate have bottomed which is why I use the phrase “at least begin to search”.
In closing I would like to thank everyone for their continued support. I would also like to especially thank those of you who have referred friends, family, associates, and co-workers. Should you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to call or e-mail.
Posted in Economy | Permalink | Comments »
Tags: economic forecast, financial markets, market recovery, recession, retirement home investment
Welcome to Bob’s weekly Financial Spotlight
The radio show is every Friday at 5:30am on WCRN AM 83 Radio, and also available here for your convenience! Just press the play button below…
Posted in Financial Planning | Permalink | Comments »
Tags: economic forecasts, financial markets, financial recovery, investing, recession
As you have probably noticed, the past month or so has yielded some very positive returns in the markets. We have had better than expected news on many fronts that has helped move the S & P 500 up about 25%. Although high levels of volatility still exist, it is not nearly as volatile as it was in the 4th quarter of 2008. This is the good news. Unfortunately, I still expect to see significant ups and downs for at least the next six months or until we get clarity on the health of the banking system and figure out the impact of bad or underperforming commercial loans. The commercial loan arena is believed to be the next shoe to drop by most experts including myself. I do not expect the commercial loan arena to be as bad as the residential mortgage arena because commercial loans were underwritten with greater scrutiny than residential loans.
My prognosis for 2009 is that the S & P 500 will post a positive yearly return with heavy volatility along the way. I believe that residential and commercial real estate will continue to be a drag on the overall economy with prices drifting lower in both sectors. I still believe that the recession will technically end in 2009 but it won’t feel that way at least until the second quarter of 2010. This prognosis is based on the assumption that the banking system continues to heal and the powers that be make the right decisions.
Posted in Economy, Financial Planning | Permalink | Comments »
Tags: economic forecast, financial markets, investing, market recovery, recession
Welcome to Bob’s weekly Financial Spotlight
The radio show is every Friday at 5:30am on WCRN AM 83 Radio, and also available here for your convenience! Just press the play button below…
Posted in Financial Planning | Permalink | Comments »
Tags: economic forecasts, financial markets, financial recovery, investing, recession
Folks, it looks like things are finally starting to improve somewhat on Wall Street. I have repeatedly said that in order to get out of this economic situation we first need to stabilize the financial system. And now the Fed, the Treasury, and the Obama administration seem to be on board with this logic. The market is obviously feeling more confident as evidenced by the 20% move off the bottom set back in February. But don’t pop the champagne corks just yet as it is going to take a while for this down turn to play itself out which means we are in for a lot of volatility in the coming weeks and months.
Even though the market is showing some signs of improvement the overall economy is not. In fact it probably won’t until at least the end of this year, at the earliest. As a result expect to see more layoffs. On a more positive note, spring is here so if you do lose your job at least you’ll have some warm weather to enjoy.
Please feel free to call or e-mail any questions or concerns. I’ll keep you posted as events transpire
Posted in Economy | Permalink | Comments »
Tags: ecomonic forecasts, financial markets, investing, recession
It has been another action packed week in the markets. At least this time around the markets have been trading to the upside. The good news is that spring is here and we are up about 10% or so from the lows that were set about three weeks ago. The bad news is that there is no end in sight to the wild swings. Most experts, including myself, believe that these turbulent markets will continue at least into early summer. I still believe that we will be able to look back in early to mid summer and have seen the lows in the market. This assumes the government is successful in fixing the banking system to a level the market is comfortable with.
My expectations on the economy haven’t changed that much since my last communication. I expect the economy to have difficulty throughout most of this year. This means more layoffs, less hiring, and more for sale signs on homes and business’s. At best, I see the economy starting to get better in the last quarter of 2009. On a positive note, I think Chairmen of the Fed, Ben Bernanke, has finally come around to doing what needs to be done to get the economy moving forward again. I know that I have criticized him previously for not getting his act in gear but now I have to give him some credit where credit is due. Once his stimulus package starts working its way into the economy things should start to get improve.
I’ll keep you posted as events of magnitude transpire. As always please feel free to call with questions and concerns.
Posted in Economy | Permalink | Comments »
Tags: ecomonic forecasts, financial markets, investing, recession
