Markets reacted to company earnings, global currency discussions and the G20 meeting approaching.  The S&P 500 started the week at 1176.19 and ended up 0.59% at 1183.08.  Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 80.91 points with Citigroup adding 5.6% on earnings news. This was expected to set a positive tone for a busy earnings week.   However, Tuesday was a different story with Bank of America struggling through regulatory issues and weak fee revenue which led to a loss of 165.07 points for the Dow Jones Industrial Average or -1.5%.  Unlike the prior week, when the heavy tech weighted NASDAQ was able to hold on even with Dow losses, Tuesday brought a rout across the board with the three big indices all losing over 1.5%.  

China also announced a surprise rate hike on Tuesday which gave the dollar strength against other major currencies as investors rushed to a “safe haven” in the belief that the news may …

With the unemployment rate at 9.5%, real unemployment in the double digits, and shadow unemployment even higher, there is a lot of your money parked in your ex-employer’s 401(k) plan and profit sharing retirement plan.  These are your assets and just like many commercials will tell you, “Take it with you! Do not leave it behind!”  According to the profit sharing 401 (k) council of America there are almost 15 million old 401(k) accounts parked with ex-employers.

Unfortunately, with the market collapse and now a solid rebound, unemployed employees do not want to look at their plans or move them.  Some simply have more pressing issues like paying bills and finding employment elsewhere.  And still some others think that the funds that their employer chose are probably just as good for now. This is not necessarily true.

We have found that single family 401(k) plans - where …

The market started the week slowly with a holiday for most businesses and banks on Monday.  While some technology stocks continued to thrive in this market with Apple hitting a new high and Intel reporting record earnings, the news from the banking sector and Federal Reserve about continued quantitative easing and “Forclosuregate” put a damper on the stock market for the week.  Markets closed flat across the board as they anticipated earnings reports from large technology and banking stocks Intel and JP Morgan. 

Tuesday was another lackluster day with the Dow Jones Industrial Average only gaining 10.06 points to close at 11020.40.  Although minutes from the central bank discussed buying more Treasuries and strategies to address low inflation and high unemployment, it was a yawn for the markets which have already accepted quantitative easing as a foregone conclusion.   The markets expect more transparency on this during the meeting of the Federal Reserve in November so, overall markets had little reaction.

After the close Tuesday, …

Upside direction returned this week with the Bank of Japan’s surprise move to cut its lending rate for the first time in two years led to more speculation about more stimuli from the Federal Reserve.  After a down day Monday with news of a civil suit against American Express and a downgrade of Microsoft, the stock market cheered the BOJ news Tuesday adding 193.45 or 1.8% to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  The S&P 500 gained 23.72 points or 2.1% to close at 1160.75.  Gold hit another record high on the news and silver jumped 3.2% to a 30 year high on the back of the struggling US dollar.

Wednesday was a quieter day as the market took a breather waiting for Friday’s non-farm jobs report.  General Electric was the best performer in the Dow gaining 2.4% on news that they may not increase their …