Welcome to the Monday Morning Market Minute for Novemer 30th. Markets look to wrap up their best November in 33 years, while the holiday shopping season is now in full swing with Black Friday and Cyber Monday underway. Join Mike Desepoli as he discusses the potential impact on the market this week.

Heritage Financial Advisory Group

Monday Morning Market Minute | November 30th, 2020

Welcome to the Monday Morning Market Minute for November 16th, 2020! This week on the M4, Mike Desepoli discusses the latest vaccine developments and why it's important for the economic recovery. Have a great Monday!

Monday Morning Market Minute | November 16th, 2020

The Major Markets skyrocketed last week. In fact, pretty much every major equity index climbed higher. The greatest gains were in the NADSAQ as the tech index added nine percentage points. This was even more apparent at the sector level as the S&P 500 Information Technology sector posted an even larger gain with a return of 9.70%. The only sector that ended under a single percentage point higher was energy as the sector was pulled down do to weakness in Natural Gas. Last week opened higher and climber with each subsequent day before pausing Friday as the S&P 500 ended virtually flat on the day. The weekly gain in the S&P 500 marked the largest gain since April and the third largest weekly gain for the year. While some may have attributed the gains to results of last week’s election, half the gains were made before the polls closed Tuesday night. On that note, the results of the 2020 election will likely continue to make headlines for the rest of the year. No-doubt you are already aware that as of election night, no clear winner of the presidential election had been declared . Both candidates declared themselves as the eventual winner Wednesday . And as the week wore on, Former Vice President Joe Biden appeared to narrow the gap to the required 270 electoral votes needed to be declared president. Over the weekend, various news agencies declared him the winner and the President Elect of the United States.  In a normal year, this would be the end of it. But this is 2020… President Trump promptly declared that lawsuits would be filed in various states as allegations of inaccuracies and shenanigans began to swirl . This was compounded by the unusually large use of mail in votes and a court case that allowed votes to be received through Friday in Pennsylvania. The intent of all this context is not to speak to the validity or the merit of the current claims of either candidate, but to highlight the political situation that may impact the markets between now and when the president will be sworn in in January. Additionally, the races in the House and the Senate ended mixed. Democrats look likely to pick up one seat in the Senate with a run-off election in Georgia likely to take place January 5th which should resolve which party has the majority. Meanwhile, the Democrats look likely to lose 4 seats in the House with the Republicans likely to pick up 5 seats, narrowing the Democrat majority in the House. This new political environment is likely to make the prospect of a massive stimulus bill, significant changes to tax rates, and modification to existing health-care laws a non-starter in Washington for the immediate future.  In economic news, the October BLS nonfarm payroll report came out showing 638,000 new jobs. Furthermore, the unemployment rate fell to 6.9%. This, along with the FOMC Press Conference Thursday was overshadowed by the election and overall political news that will likely continue to dominate news for the weeks to come.

Heritage Insider Weekly | November 9th, 2020

This week in the Monday Morning Market Minutes Mike discusses the big vaccine news from Pfizer that has the market moving higher. 

Monday Morning Market Minute | November 9th, 2020

The Major Markets saw the gains bleed away last week after three consecutive positive weeks in the domestic market. The greatest losses appeared in the Technology centric Nasdaq. This was especially apparent at the sector level as the Information Technology Sector fell 2.2% This broke a four-week run after September’s pullback.  Optimism faded last week as neither the White House nor Congress could come to an agreement on another Stimulus Deal. Ironically, the gains after Monday’s initial drop were fueled at least in part in the hopes that Nancy Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin had narrowed their differences on a new bill.  However, political anxiety ramped up as Joe Biden’s son and Amy Coney Barrett’s supreme court nomination fueled an already tense week. Thursday’s presidential debate then served as the exclamation point to these events.  As tensions flared, the longer-term end of the yield curve rose. By Friday’s close, the ten-year treasury climbed 9 basis points while the 30-year rose 12 basis points.  The gains in interest rates supported financials which was one of the four segments of the S&P 500 which managed to close higher for the week by Friday. Yet the greatest gains were seen in the Communication Services Sector.  The S&P 500 Communication Services sector is the newest and one of the smallest segments based upon the number of companies of the Blue-Chip index. Launched only two years ago in September 2018, the sector was created to address the changing landscape of technology and telecommunications  Last week, Snap, one of the 26 constituents in the Communication Services sector, beat their earnings forecast when their report broke causing the company to surge 52% in just a week, dragging the overall sector higher.    This week, earnings season continues, hopefully serving as a productive distraction from the political horrors you may be feeling ahead of Election Day.

Heritage Insider Weekly | October 26th, 2020

This week on the Monday Morning Market Minute, Mike breaks down some important newsworthy events this week in the markets. Rising Covid cases, no signs of stimulus, and a GDP report this Friday that will tell us what kind of shape the economy is in. Take a look and reach out to us with any questions. Happy Monday!

Monday Morning Market Minute | October 26th, 2020

Join Lou Desepoli of Heritage Financial Advisory Group for the Heritage Market Update for the 4th quarter of 2020.

Heritage Market Update | 4th Quarter 2020 | Lou Desepoli

Join Mike Desepoli of Heritage Financial Advisory Group for the Heritage Market Update for the 4th quarter of 2020.

Heritage Market Update | 4th Quarter 2020 | Mike Desepoli

In this edition of M4, Mike Desepoli discusses 3 things the Heritage team is keeping an eye on this week in the markets in 1 minute or less.

Monday Morning Market Outlook | August 17th, 2020

Lou Desepoli of Heritage Financial Advisory Group provides the quarterly market update and outlook for July 2020.

Heritage Quarterly Market Outlook | July 2020 | Lou Desepoli

Mike Desepoli of Heritage Financial Advisory Group provides the quarterly market update and outlook for July 2020.

Heritage Quarterly Market Outlook | July 2020 | Mike Desepoli

The major markets experienced losses last week as US-China tensions and coronavirus concerns were renewed. The tech centric Nasdaq fell about the same as the MSCI Emerging Market index. Meanwhile, the Dow, S&P 500 and MSCI World Indices all fell down in the mid 2% range. The losses were fairly consistent at the sector level with only Healthcare ending in positive territory for the week. Energy suffered the greatest losses but was followed closely by real estate.  The losses in the Energy sector were despite gains made in the GSCI Crude Oil Index totaling 8.63% for the week. It was the GSCI Natural Gas Index that was hit with a loss of 11.9% for the week. Real Estate and Financials both suffered last week as the Mortgage Bankers Association reported  another increase in the weekly mortgage forbearance rate to 7.91% An increase was expected as a new month began and more borrowers requested forbearance on their home loans. Mike Fratantoni, MBA's Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Research and Industry Technology, said that “FHA and VA borrowers have been most impacted by the job losses thus far, with the share of Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance at almost 11 percent.” The economic instability has cause some to wonder if we might see negative rate in the Fed Funds Rate by next year. Midweek, Fed Chair Jerome Powell squelched the idea of negative interest rate in the U.S. stating, “The committee’s view on negative rates really has not changed. This is not something that we’re looking at.” Finally, on Friday the U.S. Department of Commerce announced plans to restrict Huawei from using American made technology and software in its manufacturing of semiconductors. The rule change is set to go in effect in September. “Despite the Entity List actions the Department took last year, Huawei and its foreign affiliates have stepped-up efforts to undermine these national security-based restrictions through an indigenization effort.  However, that effort is still dependent on U.S. technologies,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. This news echoes last years trade war headlines as the US, along with much of the world, looks to China for explanation for the handling of information and mitigation for the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.

Heritage Insider Weekly | May 19th, 2020

The major markets closed mostly higher with emerging markets being the exception. The greatest gains were in the Nasdaq as the information technology sector was a significant outperformer. But in a pleasant change of pace, all 11 sectors closed the week in the green. And as impressive as the gains were in the IT space, they were shadowed by the gains in Energy. After weeks of turmoil, energy prices significantly recovered last week. The GSCI Crude Oil index added 17.5% by Friday’s close. However, the index is still down -76.42% year to date. This was a similar story for the Unleaded Gasoline Index. Gasoline added 24.45% last week after average nationwide gasoline prices recovered slightly from the 4-year low of $1.655 marked the week of April 27th. As it stands now, the May 11th, reading of $1.75 is still well below the 52-week average of $2.38 a gallon. The week ended with the release of April’s BLS Employment Situation Report. The headline reading of a decline of 20.5 million jobs was in line with the weekly initial jobless claims data being reported by the Department of Labor. As a result, the unemployment rate rose to 14.7%, a level not seen since the Great Depression. One somewhat positive aspect of this report was the number of unemployed persons who reported as being on temporary layoff increased about ten-fold to 18.1 million. In other words, about 80% of the people who are currently on unemployment, only view it as temporary.

Heritage Insider Weekly | May 11th, 2020

Mike Desepoli of Heritage discusses key events we saw in the past quarter, like the Covid 19 pandemic and the ensuing government response, and how we think they'll affect markets over the next few months.

Heritage Market Update | April 2020 | Mike Desepoli

Lou Desepoli of Heritage discusses key events we saw in the past quarter, like the Covid 19 pandemic and the ensuing government response, and how we think they'll affect markets over the next few months. 

Heritage Market Update | April 2020 | Lou Desepoli

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