August 2017 Newsletter to Clients

Enjoy this month’s edition that features a review of the stock market to date.

Stock Market: At the very moment this is being written the Dow Jones Industrial Average has just passed the 22,000 point mark – the most recent of 30 record-highs during 2017. The S&P 500 also hit new record highs in late July. Through the end of July, the S&P 500 was up nearly 9% from the day President Trump took office. For perspective, that increase has only been surpassed in recent decades by two other new administrations: George W. Bush’s first 6 months in office saw an increase of 20.7% and Barack Obama’s first 6 months in office saw an increase of 22.6%.

While there is always much speculation why a market increases or decreases, most informed market watchers have concluded the market has increased due to three things:

• Corporate earnings are excelling (stock prices reflect what investors’ perceived value of a company’s future cash flows will be, so earnings are a fundamental indicator of stock prices);
• A weakening U.S. dollar (a lower dollar has pushed investments into higher-yielding stocks and also helped exports from multinational corporations based in the U.S.)
• Performance of the so-called FAANG group of companies – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google – that together have outsized influence on the performance of the stock market.

Now, our job at Moneywatch Advisors is not to assign credit, or blame, for changes in the stock market. Our job is to structure each of our client’s portfolios to support your unique circumstances and your individual financial plans. As a result, your portfolios will contain a variety of carefully chosen funds within categories such as Short-Term Income Assets, Long-Term Income Assets, Growth Assets, Real Estate Funds and International Funds. Here are the returns of just a few selected funds within each of those categories:

So, while we will let each of you speculate through your own political lens the reasons for the outstanding increase in the stock market, we can all join together and celebrate its success.

Thank you for your continuing confidence.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The opinions expressed are those of Moneywatch Advisors, Inc. and are no guarantee of the future performance of any particular fund. This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Please consult your financial advisor for more detailed information or for advice regarding your individual situation.​