Source: GoBankingRates
Please read the source for information about the breakdown by age and gender. For example the study found the following:"Two-thirds of women (63 percent) say they have no savings or less than $10,000 in retirement savings, compared with just over half (52 percent) of men."
Source: CoreCapInvestments January 29, 2016 Update
ISM Trends
Source: Bespoke Investment Group
Note the year-over-year trend is negative for almost every factor in the ISM with some improvement or at least stabilization on a month-over-month basis. If you're bullish, unfortunately year-over-year data creates the trend.Luckily January is over. Can we look to February for a boost? USA Today's Adam Shell reports:
February has a reputation for being a "flat" month for the 30 blue-chip stocks in the Dow, according to Bespoke Investment Group data. Over the past 100 years, the Dow has been up just 55% of the time in February, posting a puny gain of 0.1%, on average, which ranks No. 11 out of 12 months. The average gains over the past 50 and 20 years are muted, as well, with gains of roughly 0.25%.Asset class returns so far in 2016 are showing investors are not moving money out of bonds into stocks, which may have been the Fed's hope. Instead the treasury market is telling us to exit stocks and buy treasuries. Economic data is rolling over on a year-over-year basis, and an earnings recession has begun. As the markets transition to pricing in the possibility an economic recession, February becomes the frontline for the bulls. The 10-Month and 12-Month simple moving averages have been whipsawed in the last six months. Based on monthly closes, 4 of the last 6 months these simple moving averages have indicated to investors to be in cash not stocks. The returns in January only made the case stronger for being out of the market. Chris Kimble shares this insight which sums up the feeling of many investors:
Please consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. This blog is for educational purposes only and does NOT constitute individual investment advice.
Please be very mindful when adding capital to this market. This market could prove to be great for long-term dollar cost averaging.
This is the chart of the S&P 500 back to 1970. If you're like me, I wonder how much higher this uptrend can continue. Once the Fed starts raising interest rates, will money come trickling or pouring out of the bond market to push this market even higher? Will the yield curve flatten and will capital start exiting stocks hoping to find better appreciation/preservation potential in bonds?
And then we learned this from Michael Harris at the Price Action Blog. "It may be seen that other than the 29-day pattern that formed in the beginning of this year, similar patterns with duration of more than 23 days have formed only during downtrends and large corrections,” Harris wrote. He noticed how many days the S&P 500 has gone since it has posted back-to-back gains. His conclusion is that either we’re in the midst of a large correction, or — disclaimer — the dynamics have changed and this is an exception.
Meanwhile, the median amount that Americans under 65 with retirement accounts had saved was just $50,000, according to a report released in March by the National Institute of Retirement Security...Nearly 40 million working-age households (that’s 45% of households) do not have any retirement account assets like a 401(k) or an IRA, NIRS revealed.
Brian's take.Peter's take.
Time will tell who is right.Please consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. This blog is for educational purposes only and does NOT constitute personal advice.
