Market Rollercoaster
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the May 2025 edition of the Boodle blog! If you are a member, welcome back and if you are new here, we thank you for being here, and reading our blog. At boodle we believe that the person best able to manage and grow your money is you, and we teach you how to do it using our 27 years of investing knowledge that you won't find anywhere else.
Before we offer our opinion on what the market portends for investors in the month of May, let's look back at April and look at what happened in our portfolios. If we had to sum up the month of April in one word, that word would be VOLATILITY! The market saw some unprecedented swings, and we felt those swings, mostly painfully in our portfolios! On April 4th as an example, the DOW plunged 1600 points or 4%, while the S&P 500 cratered 5% and the NASDAQ hemorrhaged 6%! April provided boodle investors the greatest example of a financial rollercoaster that we'd ever want to ride on.
And yet, something strange happened in April. Something strangely wonderful- boodle didn't receive not one text, phone call or email from any member asking what was going on, or that they were cashing out and going back to their safe, stress-free savings account! Why did boodle members stay in the market during such a volatile month? We believe that our clients TRUST boodle to be there and help them remain calm under intense pressure. All of the "experts" were saying that tariffs would crush the stock market and their portfolios. We didn't believe them. What our boodle members witnessed was the pundits (and politicians) acting on PURE EMOTION- something we never do here at boodle. Our clients pay us to think, not to be emotional. We were busy in April, doing what we always do- studying the market, gauging investor sentiment, and utilizing our 27 years of financial knowledge and insight to steer our clients away from faulty financial decisions.
We knew that Trump's tariffs would shake up world economies, and we were right. We also believe that the fundamentals are still in place to buttress the market as long as we don't get emotional and cash out.
Now we will look at the month of April, and turn our attention to the month of May. The DOW lost 3.32% in April while the S&P 500 fell by eight tenths of a point, or 0.8%. The NASDAQ, believe it or not, gained nine tenths of a point or 0.9%.Year to date the DOW is down 4% and the S&P 500 is off 4.45%, while the NASDAQ IS down 7.96%.Yesterday, as we were starting to put this blog together, the government reported that the nation's GDP- Gross Domestic Product fell by 0.3% for the quarter and if we get another negative number like that it will (possibly) mean that the U.S. has entered a recession. We will keep you posted on this development as it unfolds. May can be a tricky, unproductive month for investors, so our advice to members is to be cautious in the technology sector- always look to balance your portfolio's so that there isn't anything that can potentially cause you trouble, and always reach out to boodle at 815-793-6059. If you know of someone who can use our services, please have them send an email using our CONTACT US page. As always, enjoy the month of May and Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there! Until next month, stay safe.