Last Wednesday, April 26th, Josh Garland and our guest speaker, Erin Donham, hosted a webinar on cybersecurity. We discussed best practices and how it is one of our top priorities at Apriem. If you missed our event last week, a replay has now been made available on our YouTube channel.
Market Update
The Federal Reserve moved forward with another 0.25% hike for the Month of May, bringing the benchmark range to 5.00% – 5.25%. This marked the 10th consecutive rate hike directed at bringing down inflation and the highest the federal funds rate has been since 2007. The unanimous decision follows the failure of First Republic Bank (FRC) on Monday – the second largest failure in history – with JPMorgan (JPM) picking up the discounted assets while also bringing some stability back to the banking sector. Markets seemed unsure of how to digest Jerome Powell’s comments, but much of what he said alluded to the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) considering a pause eventually. The Federal Reserve is stuck between a rock and a hard place: Do they save the banking sector, or do they bring down inflation? For the week, the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq are all down 1.77%, 2.05%, and 1.44%, respectively, as of today’s close.
Our next webinar is on Wednesday, May 31st, where our founder, Harmon Kong, CFP®, AIF®, will be covering behavioral finance. Be on the lookout for an email to register for this event. All of our past webinars are available to watch on our website. Click here for our webinar library.
Disclosures:
Advisory services offered by Apriem Advisors (“Apriem”), a registered investment adviser with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Any reference to or use of the terms “registered investment adviser” or “registered,” does not imply that Apriem Advisors or any person associated with Apriem Advisors has achieved a certain level of skill or training. Apriem Advisors may only transact business or render personalized investment advice in those states and international jurisdictions where we are registered, notice filed, or where we qualify for an exemption or exclusion from registration requirements. For complete information about our firm, please refer to our Form ADV Part 2A, 2B and CRS at any time.
The S&P 500 Index is a free-float market capitalization weighted index of 500 of the largest U.S. companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, or DJIA, is a price-weighted index that measures the performance of 30 large publicly-owned companies in the U.S. The NASDAQ Composite Index covers more than 2,500 stocks in The Nasdaq Stock Market. All index data is reported on a total return basis, which includes dividends. One cannot invest directly in an index, and index returns do not reflect the deduction of advisory fees, brokerage or other commissions, and any other expenses a client would have paid, and that these expenses would negatively impact performance.
All charts and data from Bloomberg unless otherwise indicated.
The information provided in this report should not be considered a recommendation to purchase or sell any particular security. There is no assurance that any securities discussed herein will remain in an account’s portfolio at the time you receive this report or that securities sold have not been repurchased. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The reader should not assume that investments in the securities identified were or will be profitable.