March Forward
Hello everyone, and welcome to the March 2024 edition of the boodle blog! If this is your first visit here, we thank you for joining us, and if are returning, we thank you for being a member and we appreciate support!
On our blog we give our opinion on the equity markets and the economy so that you can make better decisions when it comes to managing your money. Remember, boodle does not manage any client funds - we equip you with the knowledge to manage and grow your funds yourself!
With February returns now officially in the record books, and we are at record levels, let's take a look at the 3 major indices stats - the DOW sits at 38996.39 gaining about 1% for the month, and the S&P 500 closed at 5096.27 for February. The NASDAQ continues its torrid pace by closing at 16,091.82 to close out the month-that is a 3.5% gain for the S&P 500 and about a 4% gain for the-tech-heavy NASDAQ.
We continue to be pleasantly surprised by the resiliency of this bull market, and based on our research, we believe that future gains are very much possible. Now as we look towards the economy, we are still seeing inflation stubbornly high. You will know what we mean when you visit your local grocery stores or your local gas station. We acknowledge that we had expected lower inflation by this time, but several factors continue to buttress high inflation, not the least of which is high interest rates, and the continuous military conflicts overseas. The Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has taken note of these factors among others, so for now we must be patient and let events play out on the Homefront and world stage.
We also want to acknowledge that tax filing season is underway, and if you're expecting a refund back because you had too much taken out of your paycheck for deductions, this might be an ideal time for you to contact your HR department and have your deductions adjusted so that you're able to keep more of your pay.
As a boodle member we encourage investing into your portfolios and a tax refund would be a good source for you to fund a ROTH Ira or add to your Brokerage account. The end of March will also mark the end of the first quarter and the start of the Q1 -First Quarter earnings season. This is the time when public corporations start to report their earnings, and here at Boodle we expect company earnings to be pretty decent, which in turn, should contribute to more gains in your portfolios.
Our view on market conditions continue to remain cautious and leaning more towards the bullish side of things.
We are of the opinion that you should continue to fund your portfolios by using a Dollar-Cost-Average approach with new money, and if you receive a lump sum payment from a source you can divide that amount by 12 and direct that money into the equity portion of your portfolio as well
As the year 2024 continues to unfold we can expect politics to to take center stage, since we are in a Presidential election year. Here are boodle we will keep a close eye on the race, because we believe that Presidential races can affect what is going on in equity markets due to the politics of the candidate who ultimately wins the race. Finally, keep in mind that Boodle is always looking for potential clients who would like to learn how to manage and grow their money and if there is anyone that you know who would like our assistance, we can be reached at 815-793-6059 or via email on our Contact Us page. Until next time, thank you for choosing Boodle and we look forward to seeing you here next month!