FYI:
Regards,
Ted
March 3rd, 2017
Dear WEALTHTRACK Subscriber,
As a special perk for all of you we asked a Morningstar mutual fund maven, John Rekenthaler to share his column on Warren Buffett’s big bet that a passive index fund would beat a pool of active hedge funds over the last decade. It looks like he won and they lost. You will find the story in our website’s EXTRA feature soon.
It’s been quite a week for investors! Wednesday’s 303 point surge in the Dow propelled it through 21000 for the first time. Many Wall Street analysts credit a “Trump Effect” of potential tax, regulation and spending policies favorable to business and the economy. Another big contributor is actual improvement in fundamentals. Employment is stronger, consumer confidence accelerated to a 16-year high in February, small business confidence is surging, home prices are increasing and wages and salaries are moving up.
The picture is sufficiently rosy that Federal Reserve officials have been publicly saying that an interest rate hike is looking increasingly likely at the upcoming March 15th FOMC meeting, where monetary policy is decided. This week Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said the case for raising rates: “...has become a lot more compelling.” San Francisco Fed President John Williams called a rate increase “very much on the table for serious consideration.” Fed Chair Janet Yellen will give her views in a speech later today at the Executives Club of Chicago (on Friday, March 3rd).
This weekend is the start of public television’s spring fundraising campaign which means that WEALTHTRACK could be pre-empted in your area. As a result we are revisiting our exclusive 2017 outlook with Wall Street’s King of Economists, Ed Hyman. It is still relevant.
Hyman, the founder and Chairman of Evercore ISI has been voted the Street’s number one economist for an unprecedented and probably unassailable 36 years by Institutional Investor magazine for a reason. In an era of information overload and complexity he and his ISI team pioneered a research product that is brief, accessible, comprehensible and comprehensive. It is a daily must read for institutional investors all over the country if not the world.
Every year on WEALTHTRACK, Ed is joined by a top investment pro to put the macroeconomic outlook into investment perspective. For 2017, we asked First Eagle’s Matthew McLennan to join us. McLennan, another WEALTHTRACK regular over the years is head of the Global Value Team at First Eagle Investment Management. He is also a portfolio manager for several funds, including the flagship First Eagle Global fund. Rated five-star by Morningstar, it is in the top decile or higher in its World Allocation category for the past one, three, five and ten year periods.
This week our primary focus will be the outlook for the U.S. economy and markets. For part 2 next week, we will concentrate more on international conditions.
If you cannot see this week’s show on television, you can watch it on our website, WealthTrack.com. You can also catch it on our YouTube channel. As always, we welcome your feedback on Facebook, Twitter or via the Contact Us link on our website.
Have a great weekend, and make the week ahead a profitable and a productive one!
Best Regards,
Consuelo
Video Clip;
