If Congress does not agree on a budget by September 30, the end of the US Government’s fiscal year, we will be facing a Government shutdown. This special edition of “On the Mark” discusses how this may impact the investment markets and whether this is something to worry about.

Last week we reported that the Fed did not raise interest rates when they met last Tuesday and Wednesday. It seems that we may be at or near the end of the interest raising cycle. The September issue of “On The Mark” discusses what this may mean for the economy and the markets.

Though the Fed has increased interest rates drastically in the last year and a half to slow up the economy to fight inflation, the economy keeps growing. Christian Chan, Chief Investment Officer of AssetMark, remarks on this increasing growth, the reason for it, and the uncertainty of this growth continuing in a recent 2 minute update.

Click on this link to view this update.

Though August has seen the stock market decline, it is still up from it’s low in early October last year. At that low point, stocks had declined significantly because of fear that rising interest rates would cause a recession.

Will we have a recession? Will the stock market continue to increase? At this point, no one can say with 100% certainty. But whether a recession occurs with a market decline or whether the stock market keeps rising, the following article by the Capital Group, one of the Portfolio Strategists we utilize for client accounts, provides an important historical perspective regarding the nature of stock market recoveries.

In yesterday’s post we discussed how the Leading Economic Index is pointing to a mild recession later in 2023 or early 2024 but that the current economy looks sound. In their weekly market recap this week, JP Morgan, one the Portfolio Strategists we utilize for client accounts, wrote the following about the current economy…