The Fed met earlier this week, as I discussed in yesterday’s post, and raised interest rates .25%. This special edition of “On the Mark” discusses the Fed’s message in light of inflation and the recent banking crisis as well as how investors should view these things.

The news since late last week has been full stories of a few banks which were taken over by FDIC. It is easy, and media certainly stokes this fear, to remember the financial crisis in 2008 and wonder if this is happening all over again. There is so much mis-information out there, so I want to share this special edition of “On The Mark” to help you understand what happened, how the government and the Fed responded, and if there is anything you should do in response to this crisis…

The Fed has been raising interest rates to try to lower inflation, which is one of their mandates. There other mandate is to seek full employment. On Friday the Department of Commerce released the employment data for February, and today JP Morgan, one of the Portfolio Strategists we utilize for client accounts, commented on this report in their Weekly Market Recap this morning…

Are we in a recession at this time? Some think we may be, but the January retail sales numbers that were recently released may point a different direction. In their Weekly Market Recap JP Morgan, one of the Portfolio Strategists we utilize for client accounts, wrote this about January’s retail sales and what this may indicate.

Most of the last twenty years, value stocks, which tend to be dividend paying stocks, have underperformed growth stocks. However, this trend has changed recently, particularly last year. The February issue to “On The Mark” discusses the difference between growth and value stocks, their place in a portfolio, and when each may do better.