Hello, my name is Chad Taylor, managing partner with MDT Financial Advisors here in Houston, Texas. Today is April the 12th, 2023, and I wanted to kind of get on and talk about some of the things that's been going on here the last couple of weeks. So today we had the inflation number come out and it came in at about 5% year over year, which was slightly less month over month than they were anticipating. And so the markets kind of took that as a good sign. It's showing that raising of the interest rates that the Fed has been doing is starting to help a little bit. So inflation has been coming down here the last six to nine months, probably not coming down as fast as they would like, especially if they're stated goal is to get it back in the 2% range.

But at least it's showing signs that things are getting better on the inflation front. So that was good. So the market kind of opened up higher when the numbers came in a little bit better than anticipated. Sold off, kind of went positive and negative most of the day. There was some reports about from the Fed minutes from their last meeting that they're saying there could be a slight recession later in the year. And if you've watched the videos here over the last few months, Wells Fargo advisors have been saying somewhat the same thing, that there could be a recession later in the year. We'll see. So it's probably not a bad idea to still be cautious here. Everything's been a little calmer the last few weeks since that small banking crisis that we had a few weeks ago, where Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank of New York were both taken over, and then ultimately sold to other banks.

But that did spook the markets and kind of make them a little challenging there for a while. It wasn't like the banking crisis back in 2008, but it was enough that it did spook the markets. But they did finally calm down once the banks were sold and once the depositors were made whole things kind of calmed down a bit. And the markets have been that way here for a little while. The bond market seems to still be trying to inch its way back up from the losses that it took last year, not back to where it was, but still trying to get that way, and the stock market will get better again at some point as well. But it's probably not a bad idea to still be cautious here. We came out with a report not too long ago that kind of talked about trading ranges that we may be in right now.

So we'll see. Things will kind of get back to normal. We just don't know when and no when does at this point. And it always kind of reminds me, we did a presentation today on retirement planning for some folks, and in the presentation we kind of talked about how you need to have a plan as you get towards retirement or into retirement so that you kind of know where you're going. It helps with times like this, and it always reminds me when I'm talking with clients as well, that look back at your plan. If you haven't done a strategy and review meeting in a while, let's do that. But it always helps to really look back to know that, "Hey, we're planning on times of turmoil like this." We don't know when they're coming. No one does, but it's always a good idea to kind of revisit that.

And it gives most people some comfort to know, "Hey, I'm still okay based on my situation." So don't hesitate to reach out and let's do that. And before I kind of close here, I've had a couple of people in the last couple of weeks that have had some kind of identity theft going on and it reminded me, and I want to remind you, remember, everybody has a free credit report we can get once a year. Where you can look at your credit report to see what's being done in your name and you're trying to look to see if there's any credit been opened in your name that you didn't know about, or if they're testing your credit to see, if they're opening, checking accounts or savings accounts in places. So don't hesitate. Don't forget, once a year, it's probably a good idea to go ahead and get that, print it off, look at it.

I did it myself right before the end of the year. I started getting some strange mail in a name that wasn't my name or Jennifer's name or Madison's name. It was the last name Taylor, but not us. And so it kind of made me a little nervous. I've been checking my credit because of that. So once a year, it's a good idea. Make it a good habit of just getting it, printing it off and seeing if anything's changed. So with that, please let me know if there's anything we can do. I really appreciate your time. Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great day.