Chad Taylor:
Hello. My name is Chad Taylor, Managing Partner with MDT Financial Advisors here in Houston, Texas. Today is Friday, June the 17th, and it's been a pretty long week in the markets this week. It was very volatile and as the investors assessed the Federal Reserve raising their interest rates by 75 basis points this week. The S&P 500 closed in bare market territory for the first time since 2020, when the COVID markets came in. And that 75 basis point raise by the Federal Reserve was the highest amount since 1994. Okay?
Chad Taylor:
After the announcements, the markets initially rallied, but then kind of faded the rest of the week. The obvious concern with the Fed or why the Fed is raising rates right now is inflation. Inflation came in last week a little higher than they expected at 8.6 and they were kind of expecting it at 8.3. And with the Fed raising rates, the main concern is will it push the US economy into a recession? That's what the markets are assessing right now. Now Chairman Jerome Powell, in a post press conference meeting, said that they do feel the US economy could withstand the pace of monetary policy tightening that they're doing.
Chad Taylor:
So there's a lot going on right now. And we know as investors, this happens and it has happened before, but it's never easy when you're going through this. And so when you're going through this, I try to for myself, think about it and try to tell people, let's take a step back. Let's look at your plan. Let's look at your goals. Is everything still the same? Are you still on track, even with this volatility? Because if so, a lot of times making no changes is appropriate. But do you need to raise cash? Is your portfolio out of balance a little bit? It's time to really look at that, just in case things get better or worse.
Chad Taylor:
So with that, I appreciate your time. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions, if you would like to revisit your plan, if you'd like to talk about new goals. Whatever's going on in your world, I've always found that when you're going through one of these tough times, it's better to have the conversations sooner rather than later, so please let us know. I hope you have a great weekend and please don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you.