Friends

As the President prepares to levy tariffs on many of our trading partners, and the country’s economic picture continues to cloud, market participants are finding it difficult to hold stocks in this volatile environment. You can apply your own political/policy beliefs here- is the President laying a foundation for a sound economy or are we blowing up an economy that was sound? Either way the Fed is much more likely to get involved sooner than later if the economy stumbles, but can they if the tariffs end up being inflationary? For long-term investors, much of this is just short-term noise and we don’t let it interfere with our long-term investment plans. But it does make for great theater and in the short-term markets are likely to continue to see increased volatility. Remember, we were up big out of nowhere last Friday, so who knows what tomorrow will bring.

As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 649 points to finish the day at 43,191. The S&P 500 was down 104 points to close at 5,849. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 497 points to close at 18,350. Gold was up $50 to trade at $2,898 per ounce, while oil was down $1.56 to trade at $68.20 per barrel WTI.

Big growth tech names continue to receive the worst of the selling as the rotation out of the stocks continues. But we saw selling across the board today. The question to ask is are the markets overreacting to the President’s agenda? Of course, only time will tell but it appears that markets were in the “sell first and ask questions later” mode at least for today. Of course, things quickly change these days. Again, in the long run all this is just noise, but of course we live and experience it in the short run. Stay buckled up, we’ll be here to keep you informed.

Have a nice evening everyone.

Jim