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A Commitment to Giving: We recently came across this quote and have thought about it all week:

Luke Porter (one of our favorite advisors from Narberth, PA) shared about how he was able to facilitate the purchase of some much needed medical equipment for a family he knew was in great need. We’re thankful to Luke for making the need known and for a firm positioned to help in such a practical way.

The quote posed by Martin Luther King Jr above continues to be on the forefront of our minds—How can we help others? How can we help Clients? Our Families? Our Friends? Strangers we meet along the road? How can we be generous with our lives?

We invite you into the conversation and are interested in your perspective and thoughts.

Continued Look at the Market: As we mentioned last week, we continue to keep our eyes on the market. This week, we were looking at a chart that compares the up and down days in the market between Jan 2021 and Jan 2022 (see below). If you’re watching the evening news, you’re probably getting a quick hit that sounds something like, “At closing, the market declined again!” But, to some degree, measuring the market’s swings by the close of each day doesn’t do it justice. For example, on Jan 24, stocks collapsed by some 4% in the morning, only to finish the session with little change. All that to say, as you keep your eyes on things, don’t hesitate to reach out so we can consider the market together.

 

Economic Headlines:

  • Crypto: According to Bloomberg, Facebook parent company Meta is preparing to give up on its digital-currency ambitions. Liana Baker writes, “The Diem Association, a cryptocurrency initiative once known as Libra, backed by Meta, was weighing a sales of assets” this week after resistance from the Federal Reserve dealt the once high-profile effort “a final blow.” Meta had planned to peg to the U.S. dollar as a so-called stable coin “typically used to buy and sell other crypto.” Although this news had a historic downside impact on FB stock, the impact on Crypto is yet to be determined.
  • Real Estate: U.S. home sales hit a 15-year high in 2021, fueled by low mortgage rates. According to data from the National Association of Realtors, about 6.12 million homes were sold last year, an 8.5 percent increase from the year before. Still, 2021 also moved many frustrated buyers in 2022, and mortgage rates are rising back to pre-pandemic levels.
  • Federal Reserve: Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said it “will soon be appropriate” to make the first interest-rate hike since 2018, said Jeff Cox in CNBC.com. Though the Fed this week “did not provide a specific time when the increase will come,” the indications are that it could happen as soon as March. With growing concerns about inflation, Powell suggested rates could rise “quite a bit” without “undermining” the labor market.

Free Skiing: If you’re not a snowbird seeking out the sun, you might just be hitting the slopes this winter. Markus Eder is considered one of the world’s riskiest skiers. He recently released a 10-minute video of one of the most hazard-riddled downhill skiing likely ever filmed. It’s entitled The Ultimate Run. Filmed going down a mountain, across a glacier, through an ice-cave, through a forest, across village rooftops, and through a castle, the Italian skier has won European Skier of the Year.