Welcome to our August 2023 Market Update Video!
Have you been paying attention to stocks, financial markets…or just enjoying the weather?!
It’s been a pretty easy market to take as stocks were up again in July, rising 3.2%. This makes it the fifth positive month and brings the year to date return to over 20%1...not bad in my opinion.
Bond yields also continued to rise last month to just over 4% on the 10-year U.S. Treasury.2 I do feel this is worth paying attention to, for reasons I’ll get into in a minute.
The Federal Reserve held its last meeting of the summer and chose to raise rates by .25%.3 They also shared that another hike in their September meeting may occur and would probably be the last for a while.
Now back to what I alluded to a minute ago. Regardless of the Fed’s influence on rates and markets, I believe we’re caught up in this perpetual debt bubble. On August 1st, as of this video Fitch Ratings downgraded the U.S. debt from the top, AAA status to AA+…one notch lower. They cited an erosion of governance as well as rising debt and deficit levels.4 I believe that as long as this bubble persists, more and more dollars are produced and are looking for the best places to invest, thus driving prices.
Having shared this, I do feel stocks are one of the better places to be moving forward. The poor market we experienced last year seems to have dissipated. Over the past several months, I believe stocks have been quite resilient even into bad news. Take the month of May for example. The U.S. experienced several bank failures, made headlines and yet stocks rose in that month.5
If it’s ok, let me pause there and offer a hearty Thank You to all of our great clients and also to those that were able to attend our Meet and Greet to say hello to Lori. Enjoy the rest of your summer and see you next month!
Successfully,
Tim Truebenbach, CFP®
Senior Vice President – Financial Advisor
Disclaimers and Sources
1 Source: LPL Research, Daily Market Update, 8/1/2023
2 Source: CNBC, 10-Year U.S. Treasury Yields, 8/2/2023
3 Source: New York Times, 7/26/2023, Federal Reserve Meeting
4 Source: Fitch Ratings, 8/1/2023, Fitch Downgrades the United States
5 Source: AP, 5/4/2023, Banking Crisis Isn’t Over
The economic forecasts set forth in this material may not develop as predicted and there can be no guarantee that strategies promoted will be successful.
Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.