Hello. My name is Chad Taylor, Managing Partner with MDT Financial Advisors here in Houston, Texas. Last week, the S&P 500 pushed higher for the week. Stocks had one of the better weeks in over a month. There was a couple of reasons for that. One, kind of contrarian buy signals. Generally oversold conditions helped investors want to buy into risk assets or equities, as did the dollar weakening. So the dollar fell and that helped people want to increase their risk a little bit.

Better than feared profit numbers. Goldman Sachs for one had better profit and revenue numbers early in the week, better than was expected. The S&P 500 closed above the 50-day moving average for the first time since April.

Now, not all was good last week. Apple signaled that they planned to slow hiring and spending growth, and Microsoft kind of followed suit later on in the week saying that they would cut the number of open jobs. The European Central Bank, their Fed, had their first rate hike in 11 years to help offset inflation and engage of U.S. business activity decreased for the first time since 2020.

So, treasury markets and the bond markets continue to signal kind of a cautious tone, and the inversion of the 10 year and the two year notes continued. If you remember why that inversion is important is that sometimes signals a recession down the road. So a lot has been going on.

A better week, but we're still cautious. This week we have the FOMC or the Fed .they'll meet and they're expected to raise rates by 75 basis points matching what they did in June. There has been talk that they could raise it 100 basis points or 1%, but we'll see. By the time this video comes out, it may have already announced that. Also we have an initial look at GDP that comes in on Thursday.

So as I've mentioned before, what do you do? If you have cash needs coming up or if you're getting extremely nervous about the markets, let's talk and discuss your situation. If your portfolio is aligned with your plan, staying the course may be the best thing to do, but it doesn't hurt to revisit that as well. The point is don't hesitate to reach out. I always find talking during these volatile times helps. I hope you have a great day and thank you for joining me.