Market Commentary

Our first market commentary is going to start off, chearing the Respect for Marriage Act.  Although my economic and business education, often finds me in agreement with pro-business politics, I am a registered independent and often vote for who I think will best lead our country as long as certain social policies and economic policies aren't threatened.  I believe in love and I want my family and friends to have love with whomever they'd like as long as it doesn't harm anyone else.  I think history has taught us that when you deny someone the ability to love whom they want there are negative results.  Go Congress!

So you might think, really that's market commentary. This is how we see it, there are a lot of moderates and independents and often it is these voters that swing elections. People who are pro-business (conservative thinking), but socially liberal, vote based on the most important issues to them during the election. With the overturn of Roe v Wade and many states eliminating the ability for women to get abortions, people who might have voted conversative are going seriously consider voting liberal to reinstate the ability for woment to get abortions. I believe we saw this in the mid-term elections and we might in the upcoming Presidential election.

Threatening the right for anyone to marry whom they desire would have a similar result in elections with more conservative economic thinkers voting based on their social beliefs. So I am happy on two fronts, first and foremost, I do believe that people should be able to love and marry who they'd like.  Least important, the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act will enable swing voters to look more at economic policies when they go to vote.

Do I think it'll impact the market for the rest of the week?  In an ideal world, yes, it should.  However, the market doesn't always make multiple level analytical links, as I did above.  But really, inflation, interest rates, China, a looming recession, all of these issues are screaming at the markets, while the Respect for Marriage Act is more of a gentle whisper. 

The lates economic news: Q3 Real GDP Revise up 2.9% versos 2.6%; personal consumption up 4.6%, which is sequentially higher.  The pre-market was slightly up on the news, but now it is mixed. The Dow is indicating down, while Nasdaq is indicating up. It appears that today will be a relatively flat day in the markets.

Derivatives trading was my introduction to Wall Street and I was lucky enough to do this at Goldman Sachs.  Prior to this position, my business experience was helping (a generous word) my father start and build his natural gas distribution company.  I was in high school and I was excited to get to work on his computer, but other than using his computer, I don't recall what I actually did.

I resigned from Goldman to attend the Univeristy of Chicago to earn my MBA.  I had dreams of becoming an investment banker.  I earned a summer internship at Lehman Brothers and love being involved in Pepsico's purchase of Tropicana.  It was exciting being on the front lines of a contentious acquisition, but I loathed the inefficiency of being an associate.  I spent most of the day light hours trying to keep busy and then from 6pm to 4am I would be stressing about getting work done.

Hence, upon graduating from business school, I chose to start my career in equity research.  Over the subsequent ten years, I covered financial institutions at Bear Stearns and then managed care companies at Citigroup.  I enjoyed doing fundamental research, which I still do today with the companies that I recommend for client portfolios.

At Coastal Wealth Management, we utlize knowledge of economic data and its effect on interest rates to determine proper allocation of portfolios in value versus growth stocks, fixed income and cash and its equivalents.  Ultimately, portfolios primarily are based on client's risk tolerance and time horizon; however, we utlized our economic analysis to determine where we believe a higher return can be achieved within these parameters.