Market Commentary

This week we received second quarter results from home improvement giants Home Depot1 and Lowe’s2. Results for these companies are important because they can be useful barometers for the health of the US housing market, the US consumer and the US economy at large ...

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released their monthly Consumer Price Index report Wednesday morning, and boy did the markets like what they saw. Inflation was 0.0% for the month. Huzzah! Inflation is defeated! Even the sky isn’t a limit! Well, not so fast. Certainly the CPI report is a positive development after two ...

I had a conversation with a client the other day, and he made a comment that made me think. He said he can’t stand to watch the cable financial news channels anymore. I asked why, and he said that he is tired of hearing all the negativity about the economy and he doesn’t believe any of the positive commentary...

Stocks took off like a rocket ship on Wednesday with the S&P 500 up 2.6% and the Nasdaq up over 4%. What’s interesting about yesterday’s rally is that it followed a day on which the S&P 500 fell 1.3% and the Nasdaq fell 1.9%. What are we to make of all this volatility? How could sentiment change so quickly in a day?...

I often get asked whether or not I see a recession coming. I have no crystal ball, but my answer has been that the likelihood is high. The evidence supporting that call is accumulating by the day, and it seems to more than offset the factors that could keep us out of a technical recession. In recent presentations...

Prices continue to rise at a pace not seen since the early 1980’s. In fact, it’s been so long since inflation was such a pervasive problem that many folks are living through it for the first time. It appears that the forces that kept inflation at bay for so long – globalization, the coming of age of the baby boomers, the decline...

Following the worst half for stocks since 1970, it’s hard to find good news. But there is some. Stock valuations haven’t been this attractive for quite a while. Except for a very short-lived blip after COVID arrived in March, 2020, we’d have to go back to mid-2019 to find stocks as attractive as they now appear to be...

There is a running group conversation on Twitter during every live TV program including the CNBC shows. All sorts of people react in real-time to whatever pundits and talking-heads have to say. The comments are positive and negative, but the negative comments are often scathing...

Investors looking to put new money to work in bonds have reason to cheer. It’s now possible to get a positive inflation-adjusted return on Treasury bonds. Imagine that! We no longer have to lose purchasing power when we lend money to the US government! Aren’t we lucky!...

Well, this certainly isn’t much fun! It has been quite a while since there’s been a Bear Market in the US. There was a brief one in December of 2018, but then the Fed began lowering interest rates (again) and shares quickly rebounded. This time, the Fed doesn’t really have that option...

This Friday we will receive the May reading for the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Just about everyone thinks this data point has more potential to move the markets than any other this week. I even heard one commentator on Bloomberg TV say this morning that “the trading week begins...

While the first month of 2021 may not have been the clean slate many were hoping for, the markets, at least, finally have some clarity. Joe Biden is our 46th president, and although the blue wave in Georgia was a bit of a surprise...

We wanted to touch base on the markets following the news that the President and First Lady have tested positive for COVID 19. History has shown that markets can react negatively in the short term to uncertainty...

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (H.R. 748), also known as the CARES Act, is a law meant to address the economic fallout of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

As the world digests the news of stoppages in travel, and postponements of events, equity markets are correcting sharply and have fallen into bear market territory. It can be alarming and frustrating to watch the balance of your hard-earned savings fluctuate wildly.

After a weekend of continued news of uncertainty about the coronavirus and tensions in oil markets, global equity indexes have started off the week in the red. We suspect this volatility will continue in the face of a pandemic ...

We at White Pine Wealth Management wanted to take a moment to comment on the economic impact of the coronavirus as seen in the recent market decline. COVID-2019 (also known as 'nCov' or 'coronavirus') first gained public attention...