September is a month of notable transitions. There are seasonal changes—including the end of summer and the beginning of fall—the beginning of a new school year, the start of another football season, and of course, the onset/onslaught of Pumpkin Spice everything. Certainly most of us will welcome cooler weather.
Scorching temperatures made this one of the hottest Augusts (and early Septembers) on record. However, while it was quite warm outside, markets were cooling down. Despite a rally late in the month, all three major indexes had a rough go. After dropping almost -8% at one point, the Nasdaq managed to claw back enough to finish down -2.05%, the S&P 500 finished down -1.6%, and the Dow closed the month down -2.01%. Some of the market malaise was driven by corporate profits falling for the second straight quarter as firms grappled with the impact of higher interest rates. Still, a raft of reasonably positive economic reports at the end of the month pointed to normalizing economic conditions and suggests the Federal Reserve may be on a course to hold rates steady at their meeting later in September.
September has typically been a lackluster month for markets, and investors appear jittery. Long-term investors would do well to heed the advice of Warren Buffet: “We don’t have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.” It is the disciplined investor who, staying patient in the face of a rush to action by other market participants, earns the rewards that accrue to investors over time.
Articles of Interest
The Power of Time Video
Every year, the news is full of news headlines that move markets. But despite the news–good or bad—markets have shown remarkable long-term growth. Watch this brief video to see how patient investors have historically been rewarded.
Bears, Bulls, and Long-Term Benefits of Stock Investing
Continuing with the theme of long-term investing, while stock returns are often volatile, nearly a century of bull and bear markets shows that the good times have outweighed the bad times.
I Have to Pay Taxes on That?
It would be great to hang on to everything you earn or receive—but in many cases you can’t. Here, are seven situations to help you prepare for surprising taxable events so you don’t come up short.
5 Important Financial Goals for Teens
Learning how to manage money is an important life skill for teenagers to develop. Focusing on these five financial goals can help them establish baseline habits to set them up for future success.
Fall Fun: 10 Best Places to Go Apple Picking in The U.S. This Season
Fall is right around the corner. It’s a great time of year to visit a pumpkin patch, a vineyard, or go apple picking all around the U.S.
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Investors cannot invest directly in an index. Indexes have no fees. Historical performance results for investment indexes do not reflect the deduction of transaction and/or custodial charges or the deduction of an investment management fee, the occurrence of which would have the effect of decreasing historical performance results. Actual performance for client accounts will differ from index performance.
S&P 500 Index represents the 500 leading U.S. companies, approximately 80% of the total U.S. market capitalization.
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) Is a price-weighted average of 30 significant stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the NASDAQ.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ) measures all Nasdaq domestic and international based common-type stocks listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market and includes over 2,500 companies.
TREASURY Bloomberg Barclays US Treasury TR: U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities Index provided by Morningstar Direct. The index includes all publicly issued, U.S. Treasury inflation-protected securities that have at least one year remaining to maturity, are rate investment grade, and have $250 million or more of outstanding face value.
