Weekly Update: Good morning! Today’s Title: Golf and Thrones: Both are games, by Charley. Golf: Who knew that while lounging around at 9 am on a Sunday one could watch the Masters?  A little threat of rain and the game was moved up.  Tiger was able to fire up the crowd for his 5th victory at the Masters.  Who knew green jackets were so popular! Thrones: The 8th season of

Weekly Update: Good morning! Spring has arrived here in Michigan, which is wonderful.  It was an exciting weekend of basketball, as March Madness is coming to a close.  Michigan State had a good run, but Texas Tech was able to match them out. The stock market has enjoyed the Federal Open Market Committee’s comments in the last few weeks.  The S&P 500 average is now within 1.3% of its all-time

Weekly Update: Good morning! It is a great morning in Michigan, as Michigan State (MSU) beat Duke to enter the Final Four in the men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.  Duke, ranked number one and MSU, ranked number two have a history of one-sided outcomes.  MSU was 1-11 versus Duke entering this game.  The last time MSU won was in 2005. The yield curve, just like my 4-year old daughter, has been

Weekly Update: Good morning! Today’s Title: Clarity, concern, and contraction.  The three C’s by Charley. Clarity: – The FOMC stated that they are not going to raise interest rates.  We are in a neutral position. – The 600+ day investigation into Trump and Russia is done. Concern: – The bond market reacted to the FOMC news by officially inverting from the 3-month US Treasury to the 10-Year US Treasury.  This

Weekly Update: Good morning! There have been few fun-filled days of good news as of late.  Some recent interesting points: Kyle Bush won the Auto Club 400 Michigan State won the Big 10 Basketball Tournament Beto O’Rourke raised $6.1 million over the weekend Self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders raised $5.9 million over the weekend The news can cloud our judgment.  I read the headlines, and I see that $12 million was

Weekly Update: Good morning! I have a request to try to incorporate NASCAR racing into my economic update.  I love the challenge, so thank you, Jeff.  Auto racing is all about data and execution, just like a financial institution.  We need to read the data, make adjustments and move forward.  I believe this is a point that can get missed at times. It is easy to ignore the data and

Weekly Update: Good morning! This week is looking like a darn good week.  Why am I so excited?  To start with, this is the last week of February.  I can feel the warmth of April just around the corner (yes, I am skipping March).  This is great news since we left a polar vortex, and we are now in a bomb cyclone.  I need to become a meteorologist, as I

Weekly Update: Good morning! I am excited to announce that McQueen Financial Advisors is growing! We have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a staunch competitor, Balance Sheet Solutions, based in Naperville, Illinois, with offices in Illinois, New York, Colorado, and California.  We are acquiring their asset liability management, ALM validations, investment management, and mortgage servicing rights valuation businesses. I am excited about this new chapter in our history

Weekly Update: Good morning! This week is looking like a darn good week.  Why am I so excited on a Monday?  To start with, Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow so we should have an early spring.  This is great news, since we live in a polar vortex, and my daughter has had more snow days than school days this year (slight exaggeration).   Also, daylight savings is only a

Weekly Update: Good morning! Happy Monday after a not so super Super Bowl.  I am conflicted with the event.  Why?  Tom Brady is a Michigan man, so I am happy for him winning.  Yet it was a boring game.  I have to admit that I did fall asleep in the 4th quarter. A defensive controlled, low scoring game is not the most exciting game for a casual fan.  This reminds