Recent Market News and our Featured News Letter!

ROBARE & JONES ON THE MARKETS

           The S&P 500 ended up marking the index's first weekly advance in almost a month. Even with this gain, the S&P 500 is down 5.3% for the month of June. With just four sessions remaining in the month as well as the first half of 2022, the index is down 18% for the year to date.

Previous weeks, the index entered bear market territory as the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee made a larger-than-expected increase in its benchmark interest rate following higher-than-expected inflation figures reported earlier this month. Then last week Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said a recession is possible and a soft landing would be "very challenging." He also said the central bank would be reluctant to shift to cutting rates without clear evidence that inflation "really is coming down."

Nevertheless, most US sectors rose this week, led by the consumer discretionary sector, which climbed 8.2%, and health care, which added 8.1%. All sectors were also positive with the exception of Energy, which slipped 1.6%, was the only sector in the red.

In the consumer discretionary sector, Carnival (CCL) said it expects to turn a core profit in its current fiscal third quarter, driven by a boost in demand for cruising following an easing in COVID-19 protocols. Shares of Carnival jumped 13% on the week.

This week investors will be looking at data showing May pending home sales, the June consumer confidence index on Tuesday, May personal consumption expenditure inflation, and consumer spending data due Thursday.

 Let's take a look at the markets from this past week!

The Piggy Bank Newsletter!

One of our Financial Advisors, Valerie Roque, CFP®, CDFA®, writes a monthly newsletter, The Piggy Bank, focused on financial planning topics to help young professionals navigate their finances.

 The Piggy Bank is covering a multi-part series on pre-tax vs. Roth assets, with the first part already out! Additional topics to be covered include 401(k) plans, some of the ways around the limitations put in place by rules and regulations (i.e., backdoor and mega backdoor Roth contributions) and Roth conversions when opportunities present themselves.

 Part 1: The Great Debate: traditional vs. Roth IRA
 
 To sign up for the rest of the topics in the series, click here. The next newsletter will go out towards the end of July.