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The Economy
Mike Katto
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™
Registered Investment Advisory Representative
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The Economy
The US economy is improving at a moderate pace. The GDP
growth is at 2.3% for Q2 of 2015.
 |
| From The Bureau Of Economic Analysis |
The unemployment rate is the lowest it has
been since 2009 at 5.3%.
 |
| From The Bureau Of Labor Statistics |
The latest Inflation data shows inflation is tame at less than 1.0%.
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| From InflationData.com |
The consumer sentiment index is still above 90.
 |
| From Dshort.com |
The Federal Reserve board (Fed)
is contemplating raising interest rates in its September meeting and stated
that it will be data driven in its decision. Overseas economies are mixed.
Europe is coming out of a recession while China may be in a recession. Greece remains a risk to Europe by not being able to meet its debt obligation and the other debtor European countries following Greece if it exits from the EU. The
European Central Bank is accommodative by moving interest rates lower and the
Chinese government recently devalued their currency and made short selling illegal
to ease the recession and stop the market selloff respectively. Brazil and
Russia are in a recession. In my opinion, the Fed will not raise rates in September as the dual mandate to keep inflation and employment in check is met and raising rates will further make the situation worse in emerging markets. Also, it is best to invest in the US as the
economy is growing and the market is less volatile than other places around the
world.
Markets
Markets around the world performed year to date according to the following chart.
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| From Yahoo Finance |
The ranking is in the enlarged lower right corner as follows.
Note that Europe in terms of US dollars was not the winner. NASDAQ was the winner. The US dollar strengthened against the Euro making the return less than it would be in Euro terms. How does your portfolio compare?
Stocks
Stocks were mixed. Some were winners like Netflix and some were losers like Micron Technologies. See the chart below for notable stocks performance year to date.
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| From Yahoo Finance |
The ranking is in the enlarged lower right corner as follows.
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™
Registered Investment Advisory Representative
