You’ve heard us repeat it regularly: although the keys to reaching your financial goals are very simple, implementation is not necessarily easy. The most important rules are: spend less than you earn, invest your savings regularly, keep your investment expenses low, and diversify your portfolio. Today, we’ll focus on this last rule, and consider the recent outperformance of U.S. stocks versus foreign stocks and bonds.
Nearly 50 years ago, nine months before Neal Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind,” another American made his own giant leap for the record books. The scene was the 1968 summer Olympics in Mexico City. The date was October 18, 1968.
Domestic stocks rebounded in the second quarter–led by small cap, energy, and technology shares—but the broader S&P 500 index still ended the quarter below its January peak (up less than 3% for the year). Investor sentiment during the first half was mixed. Initially, optimism abounded that the stimulative impact of last December’s tax cuts, combined with the longest monthly job expansion on record, would push stocks higher. Subsequently, rising geopolitical tensions and escalating trade disputes have clouded the picture, and increased the potential for negative unintended consequences.
Last week brought news that the average 30-year mortgage rate increased to 4.61%, the highest level since 2011. This should not be particularly surprising–mortgage rates are highly correlated to the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield, which has more than doubled from its record low nearly two years ago:
In American politics, there is a clear separation between Democrats and Republicans on the subject of whether corporations deserve the same rights as citizens. Where both parties appear to agree lately though is when it comes to extracting big fines from them. The number of billion-dollar fines grew from zero in 2010 to nine in 2016. The 1st few months of the Trump administration saw four settlements of over $1 billion each. The current President, despite touting his pro-business credentials, was very happy to follow the prior administration’s footsteps saying on Twitter in February that fines and penalties against a bank, Wells Fargo, would be “pursued and, if anything, substantially increased.” So the recent news that the bank got fined $1 billion did not come as a surprise.
In his recently-published annual letter to shareholders, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett lamented a dearth of attractive acquisition opportunities in 2017