Annual presentation from Ferguson Wellman sharing our views for the year regarding the global economy and capital markets, as well as a planning update from our wealth management team.
2025 Investment Outlook Webinar Video: Lessons Learned
Hold Your Fire
This week, the equity market had a “shoot first, ask questions later” response to news surrounding DeepSeek, a Chinese artificial intelligence startup company that claimed to achieve ChatGPT-level performance at a fraction of the cost. This news sent a shockwave through the technology sector, sparking a frenzy of speculation and questions about AI innovation.
Trick or Treat
Chocolate-loving parents may be in for a sour surprise as they rummage through their children’s Halloween candy this year. With cocoa prices double the levels seen last year, food companies are getting creative, reducing the size of chocolate bars and adding more non-chocolate treats to their Halloween candy bags for sale. Trick-or-treaters weren’t the only ones to experience an eventful week, as an action-packed capital markets provided investors with their own bag of surprises to unpack.
Hawks vs. Stocks
It was an action-packed week headlined by Wednesday’s economic “doubleheader.” The Federal Reserve’s June meeting took place the same day as the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation report.
What Goes Up, Must Come Down ... Eventually
This week investors shrugged off hotter-than-expected inflation data, one of the most important data inputs for the Fed in deciding its next policy moves. The impact of the Fed aggressively raising rates over the past year has brought inflation down from a whopping 9% in June 2022 to 3% by the end of 2023. The Fed’s ultimate target is 2%. Much like updating a computer, the last bit sometimes takes the longest.
Productivity = Prosperity
By March, our feelings of excitement for a new year have generally worn off and we have settled into our winter routines. The hope of an early spring and longer days are normally what carries us through the season, but this year, more excitement is brewing.
Do Trees Grow to the Sky?
The most prominent news for the markets this week came from semiconductor company Nvidia, as they announced their most recent earnings. Nvidia is at the tip of the spear for the excitement surrounding artificial intelligence investing. The company’s dominant market share in the chips used to train artificial intelligence models and build out artificial intelligence infrastructure has driven exorbitant growth for the company in the last couple of years.
2024 Investment Outlook Webinar Video: Sticking the Landing
Annual presentation from Ferguson Wellman sharing our views for the year regarding the global economy and capital markets, as well as a planning update from our wealth management team.
Augmenting Intelligence
Earlier this week we celebrated the one-year anniversary of the 2022 stock market bottom. At that time, inflation was hitting multi-decade highs while 100% of economists surveyed by Bloomberg were forecasting a recession within 12 months. Fortunately, the U.S. economy has held up better than expected, resulting in a strong bounceback in stocks.
Third Quarter 2023 Investment Strategy Video: Standing Eight Count
Thematic Investing in Artificial Intelligence
“Have you used ChatGPT?” Wherever I go, whatever the context, I keep getting this same question. Clearly, the excitement around artificial intelligence (AI) is real… look at the stock market.