Weekly Update: Good morning! Today’s Title: Skylines Rising… By Charley. Economic Growth: I am currently in New York City for a conference, and as I look at the skyline, it reminds me of my hometown of Detroit. There is a lot of building going on; cranes are all over the city. Economic prosperity is happening everywhere I look. As I chat with clients who have construction suppliers or builders as

Weekly Update: Good morning! Today’s Title: Mother’s Day and Father’s Day… By Charley. Two days in the spring: In mid-May, we celebrate Mother’s Day, and a month later in mid-June, we celebrate Father’s Day.  The founder of the modern-day Mother’s Day is Anna Jarvis (Now all I can think of is the movie Iron Man) in Grafton, West Virginia in 1908. Is Mother’s Day a financial success?  It is, and

Weekly Update: Good morning! Today’s Title: Derby, Rockets, and Unemployment… By Charley. Derby: Lots of sports have interference rules.  Who knew the Kentucky Derby also had them?  Maximum Security (the un-winner) interfered with the other horses.  Thus, the 2nd place horse, Country House was announced the winner.  Conspiracy is sure to follow, as there were $6 million more win bets on Maximum Security. Rockets: Rocket Man, as the North Korean

Weekly Update: Good morning! Today’s Title: Markets and Inflation… By Charley. Markets: The technology sector is on fire.  In the last four months, the value of technology stocks has increased by more than one trillion dollars.  Vanguard investment company has seen its flagship technology fund VGT increase by over $400 million in one day.  The fund now has more than $21 billion in it. Technology is not the only successful

Weekly Update: Good morning! Today’s Title: Millennials are just like me as a kid, except… By Charley. Driving: The number of 16-year old’s with driver licenses has declined by 20% since 1983.  Only 25% of 16-year-olds have a drivers license now.  It appears that cars are not as important, especially with Social Media and Uber.  It is easier to higher a driver for a ride than own a car.  Also,

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