Working Man: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

Working Man: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs! Friday saw the markets down despite what looked like great news for the economy and FED. It was announced that the December U.S. unemployment rate dropped to a rate of 4.1% from a previous 4.2%. Additionally, nonfarm payrolls increased by 256,000 in December and hourly earnings rose 0.3% to cap […]
Survival of the Fittest – S&P 500 Roars Past S&P 500 Equal-Weighted Index

Survival of the Fittest – S&P 500 Roars Past S&P 500 Equal-Weighted Index The S&P 500 Index is one of the most well-known benchmarks in the world of investing. It tracks the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States, weighted by market capitalization. In contrast, the S&P 500 Equal-Weighted Index […]
The Three Key Elements to a Sound Financial Plan

By Kaitlyn Laney, CFP® As a certified financial planner, I’ve had the privilege of helping individuals and families craft financial plans that align with their unique goals and dreams. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that a successful financial strategy is built on three core elements: Goal Setting🎯 Every plan starts with understanding what […]
US CPI Disappoints

By Greg Lai and Alex Hsiao, Co-Chief Investment Officers The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released September inflation data, and the report was a mixed bag. Headline CPI slowed for the sixth consecutive month, ticking down to 2.4% from 2.5% in August, the lowest reading since February 2021. That’s positive because we’re still making […]
Stagecoach rides again!

By Greg Lai and Alex Hsiao, Co-Chief Investment Officers Much has changed over the last month in the markets, and as the earnings season starts, we may see another sign of this change. The FED signaled a change that might be viewed as the “mission accomplished” football spike. We saw a rally in the stock […]
Remember When a “Dollar Saved Was a Dollar Earned?”

By Greg Lai and Alex Hsiao, Co-Chief Investment Officers The evidence shows that at this point, handwringing over large deficits hasn’t been the prediction of financial Armageddon. I’ll admit that this is quite the oversimplification of the complex history of the U.S. fiscal condition. One look at Jeremy Siegel’s long-term Total Real Return Indices and […]
Nuclear is the New AI

By Greg Lai and Alex Hsiao, Co-Chief Investment Officers Energy has long been viewed as a key component of future technology growth, and it continues to generate significant interest in the market. On Sept 20, Microsoft (MSFT) signed a 20-year fixed-price power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy (CEG). As part of the deal, Constellation will […]
Risk of China Deflation: Traders eyeing China Inflation

By Greg Lai and Alex Hsiao, Co-Chief Investment Officers Moving from questions of rates and inflation in developed markets, we decided to look at prices in China in search of clarity on the direction of the world’s second-largest economy by GDP. Whereas rising prices have been a big problem for Western central banks, investors follow […]
Future of Moore’s Law in Jeopardy

By Greg Lai and Alex Hsiao, Co-Chief Investment Officers Intel is at a critical juncture, with its latest earnings report raising serious doubts about the company’s future trajectory – Intel’s Moore’s Law became the golden rule for the electronics industry in which computing power would dramatically increase while relative cost would decrease exponentially. In Q2 2024, […]
Price Controls – Just “Don’t” Do It

By Greg Lai and Alex Hsiao, Co-Chief Investment Officers On August 15, 1971, when inflation was about 3% at an annual rate. To control inflation, President Nixon announced he was freezing wages and prices for ninety days, raising tariffs on certain imports, and ending the direct international convertibility of the dollar. The set of policies […]