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Gas Prices Rise for First Time in Five Weeks
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Gas prices rose for the first time in five weeks, experiencing their largest weekly jump in almost a year. As of March 24th, the price of regular and premium gas were up 6 and 4 cents from the previous week, respectively. The WTIC end-of-day spot price for crude oil closed at $69.11, up 2.6% from last week.
SEC, CFTC Leaders Predict Shifting Priorities, Penalty Policies
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The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are expecting new leadership put in place by the Trump administration to usher in different enforcement priorities and a shift in how firms and individuals pay fines.
Private Equity Pushes for Two-Letter Tax Change to Save Billions
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The $5 trillion industry is embarking on a campaign to change the way taxes for indebted businesses are tallied. Leading lobbyists want to tack two letters — DA — back to an earnings formula used to help calculate tax deductions, a change potentially worth billions.
New Home Sales Rebound in February; Just Below Forecast
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New home sales rebounded slightly in February but still came in just below the forecast. According to the Census Bureau, new home sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000 in February, below the 682,000 forecast. This represents a 1.8% increase from January's upwardly revised rate of 664,000 and a 5.1% rise from one year ago.
The Economic Data Is as Cloudy as the Outlook
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The US economy looks set to disappoint this quarter. A number of economists have lowered their forecast for growth in real gross domestic product due to a widening trade deficit and sluggish consumer spending. An uncertain trade war and tepid labor demand have also clouded the outlook for the rest of 2025. Conflating the two would be a mistake, though.
Consumer Confidence Sinks to 4-Year Low in March
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The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index® sank to its lowest level in over four years in March. The index fell to 92.9 this month from February's upwardly revised 100.1, marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline, the longest streak since 2012
How Can Financial Advisors Use Social Media to Attract Clients Under 40?
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Investors under 40 have little interest in reaching out to humans for financial advice. Rather than collaborating directly with a professional, many investors under 40 prefer a do it yourself (DIY) method that enables them to find stock market information online.
Richmond Fed Manufacturing Activity Slowed in March
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Fifth district manufacturing activity slowed in Mach, according to the most recent survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. The composite manufacturing index fell to -4 this month from 6 in February, the largest monthly decline in over a year. This month's reading was worse than the forecast of 8.
Constructing a Contemporary Portfolio to Make Capital Markets Work Harder for You
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In today’s hyper-competitive environment, delivering an institutional-caliber portfolio isn’t just table stakes – it’s a fiduciary mandate that exceeds the scope of an individual advisor. Here is a checklist to help advisors evaluate whether their current approaches align with institutional best practices.
S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index: 4.1% Annual Gain in January
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Home prices continued to trend upwards in December as the benchmark national index rose for a 24th consecutive month to a 19th straight record high. The seasonally adjusted home prices for the national index saw a 0.6% increase MoM, and a 4.1% increase YoY. After adjusting for inflation, the MoM fell to 0.3% and YoY fell to -0.5%.
Risky Bonds Aren’t So Risky in the Long Run
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The world is a risky place, and high-yield debt spreads to safe US Treasury securities are close to historic levels of stinginess, signaling complacency in markets — at least on the surface. But legendary investor Howard Marks says that’s the wrong way to look at it and long-term investors should consider allocations to credit.
FHFA House Price Index Up 0.2% in January
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The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) house price index (HPI) rose to 436.5 in January. U.S. house prices were up 0.2% from the previous month, as expected, and up 4.8% from one year ago. This marks the 29th consecutive monthly increase for the index.
The Investment Portfolio Approach
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Emerging markets offer the potential for long-term diversified investment returns but they can endure challenging periods of volatility and uncertainty. Head of Portfolio Strategy David Dali maps out the issues to consider when constructing and managing a portfolio for emerging markets.
Symptoms or Causes
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In spite of severe polarization on so many issues, there is at least one thing that Americans agree on across the entire political spectrum, left, right, and center. That is: At some point in the past sixty years, or so, something major went wrong with the US economy and it is still causing problems today.
World Markets Watchlist: March 24, 2025
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Six of the nine indexes on our world watch list have posted gains through March 24, 2025. Hong Kong's Hang Seng is in the top spot with a year to date gain of 21.82%. Germany's DAXK is in second with a year to date gain of 13.79% while France's CAC 40 is in third with a year to date gain of 8.50%.
The Catch-22 in the Fed’s Interest Rate Decision
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Quantitative easing has created serious inflation threats. The only way out is to increase tax receipts and reduce government spending, neither of which is in the Fed’s purview. Otherwise, serious inflation lies ahead, regardless of Fed actions.
The Federal Reserve: Waiting for More Policy Clarity
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This week, and according to many, Federal Reserve (Fed) officials jumped onto the uncertainty bandwagon, along with consumers and businesses, waiting for more policy clarity from the Trump administration – and who could blame them with policies in daily flux?
AI Agents Are the Next Big Thing, Says NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang
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Despite NVIDIA’s stock flashing a bearish “death cross”—its 50-day moving average slipped below the 200-day moving average for the first time since January 2023—the energy at the conference was electrifying. Every major industry was represented, from health care to defense, signaling that artificial intelligence (AI) is expanding at a white-knuckle clip.
Emerging-Market Equities: The Steep Cost of Missing Out
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Emerging-market (EM) equities are off to a strong start in 2025, up 4.5% through March 14 in US-dollar terms. But investors could be excused for being wary. After all, emerging markets have struggled over the past decade.
Germany Takes the Handbrake Off
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On the latest edition of Market Week in Review, Director and Global Head of Solutions Strategy, Van Luu, discussed the latest rate decisions from key central banks. He also talked about fiscal reform in Germany and reviewed recent U.S. market performance.