BUILDING A BETTER RETIREMENT

Executive Summary The S&P 500 was flat last week The U.S. government is once again open for business Markets thrive when liquidity rises GDP grows faster when the government spends more The odds that the Fed will cut a quarter-point on December 10th fell to 45.8% The S&P 500 is a concentrated index, heavily weighted toward technology Diversification reduces risk without necessarily reducing return Deciding when to take Social Security is about maximizing your benefit (A quick note this week due to travel on my part. You’ll find a variety of comments about last week’s market and events that may impact the stock and bond markets. Also, some thoughts on conversations with clients.) The S&P 500 was flat last week and is testing its 50-day moving average again (purple line below). We may see a down week this week. A fall below November 7th’s low of 6631.44 would likely lead to a further drop. A lower high and lower low would be in place, the definition of a down trend.

Executive Summary The S&P 500 fell 1.6% last week to close at 6,728.8 There was a widespread sell-off in the Tech space The Nasdaq Composite had its worst week since the week ending April 4th The jobs market is a concern for the Federal Reserve Data is scarce, but the jobs market seems steady U.S. services sector economic activity picked up in October A diversified portfolio is more important for risk management than ever The S&P 500 fell 1.6% last week to close at 6,728.8. The Nasdaq 100 fell 3.1% on the week. The declines were blamed on a report released Thursday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, according to Barron’s. But the market fell throughout the week. The Challenger Gray report wasn't released until Thursday. The report may have helped sink the market last week, but it wasn't the lone catalyst.