Welcome to My New Financial advice Blog
Introduction
Hello, My name is Luke Thalman and this is my blog. I am currently a graduate student at The University of Alabama. I am also an aspiring financial advisor. I am creating this blog to update the public on current information about the stock market and give valuable financial advice. I look forward to interacting with my followers and providing useful insight for all.
Any questions or comments will be answered through email. You can contact me at luke.thalman8@gmail.com. I will answer questions weekly through my posts.
2/24/20 Blog Post #1: How the Coronavirus is impacting the Stock Market
As most of us know, there is a new virus that has broken out which is called the Coronavirus. The Virus started in China and has made it’s way all over the world, tallying many deaths and infecting many different people and countries. This in turn, has caused stock markets to go down. Whenever there is uncertainty in the world, investors take their money out of investments because they expect companies to underperform. Over the weekend, there were new reports that several individuals have contracted the disease in Italy. Reported today, the Dow Jones is down more than 950 points which is 3.3%. The S&P 500 was down 3 percent today which is the largest decline since December 2018. Ever since news spread of the virus, the Dow’s industrial average has been steadily decreasing. If the disease keeps spreading, people will continue to retract their money and the industrial average will continue to fall. My advice to everyone reading this is to STAY IN THE STOCK MARKET. In the past, financial markets have withstood the test of deadly viruses. Yes, the virus may have short-term effects on the stock market but you are better off riding it out.
Below, I have attached a video that CNBC did on the effect that the Coronavirus has had on stocks.
2/24 Word of the day: Epidemic- a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time
3/24/20 Blog post #2 New stimulus in effect
Government has just signed a bill to put a new stimulus into effect. The new stimulus is worth up to $2 trillion dollars which is geared toward improving the economy which will make the stock market rise. The idea behind the stimulus bill is to give individual’s money that they are not earning because of the epidemic, which will in turn allow them to spend the money and jumpstart the economy. This has made the stock market rise and it continues to go up as more and more people become more certain about the future of this pandemic. This stimulus is able to pay people that make less than $150,000 a year and give them a little over $1,000 per month. It is a great idea to keep the economy steady during this crisis and will hopefully make the stock market go up and stay up. During this time, you should not be selling your stocks but instead waiting for the pandemic to be over because the stock market is going to rise quickly as this disease goes away.
Below is a link to a great article from the Washington Post that summarizes the Stimulus and describes how it is going to effect the individuals in our country.
3/24 Word of the day: Stimulus: An Economic stimulus is an attempt by a governing body to stimulate growth in the economy
4/9/20 Blog post #3: Largest one-week rally of the year for U.S. stocks
Although the Coronavirus seems to have a serious impact on the global economy, the U.S. stocks had their largest one-week rally for the year of 2020 as of Thursday, April 9th. This is due to the Federal Reserve composing new programs that will help the small businesses around the U.S. financially. Central bankers have been huge during this time of need and as of Thursday, they have provided $2.3 trillion in lending to midsize and small businesses. It is good to see these stocks rallying at the moment because it shows what the future could hold for the U.S. stock market. Many of experts are predicting a strong rebound in the second half of the year which would be when the virus is expected to slow down. This would in turn show large growth rates for the third and fourth quarter.
As I always recommend, stay in the market. Obviously, times do not seem to promising right now but once this virus is gone, the market is going to make a strong rebound and make people a lot of money. It is important to weather the storm and be strong through all of this. Consumers need to look at the big picture instead of focusing day by day on how the stock market is doing. As the virus continues to weaken and when it disappears, the market will trend upward.
Below is an article from the Wall Street Journal that explains why and how the Federal Reserve is starting new programs to aid Cities and businesses.
4/9 Word of the day: Market trend: A market trend is a perceived tendency of financial markets to move in a particular direction over time. These trends are classified as secular for long time frames, primary for medium time frames, and secondary for short time frames.
4/15/20 Blog post #4: Coronavirus may have peaked in several states
In recent news, many have said that the Coronavirus has reached it’s peak number of cases in several states. This is very important for the stock market because the virus has had a tremendous impact on it recently. Many stocks have been down because of the stay at home orders. No one is able to go out and spend money so the economy has been struggling. As we inch out of this pandemic, we should see people become less uncertain about the economy and stocks start to rise again. We will see the numbers go down in the number of cases in each state and the stock market in turn will rise. Some states are even starting to lift their stay at home orders. This is very important for our national economy and if things stay on the same track that they are now, the economy will be booming in a couple of months.
Below is a link to a graph of market trends in 2020. It is important to see the rise that we have had in the last couple of weeks as the numbers of the Coronavirus slow down.
https://research.investors.com/markettrend.aspx
4/15 Word of the day: Bear market: A bear market is when a market goes through prolonged price decline. It typically describes a condition in which stock prices fall 20% or more from recent highs because of widespread pessimism or negative investor information.
4/24/20 Blog post #5: Stocks on track for mild weekly loss
The Dow Jones is reported down 3% this week after it’s largest two week rally since 1930. There are two large factors right now attributing to this. One is the Coronavirus and the other is the fall in oil prices. The oil prices are a trade off of the Coronavirus and the fall in stocks are too. To me, it is promising that the stock market is not taking a serious downturn during this pandemic. I think that it shows that we have a stable economy and that people need to understand that this will all be over at some point. It is important to stay invested in the market during this time and not to panic. Consumers have to understand that this virus is temporary as well as the returns. The Wall Street Journal reported that our economy is experiencing one of the largest demand shocks since the Great Depression. This is understandable because of the stay at home orders. These will soon be lifted and the economy will return back to normal.
4/24 Word of the day: Recession: In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending
4/30/20 Blog post #6: Stocks have dropped because of the amount of jobless claims
The trend continues on the last day of April of no consumer spending and increase of jobless claims. Although markets have been up recently, they have gone down this week because of the quarantine stay at home orders. The weekly jobless claims has hit $3.8 million which surpasses estimates of $3.2 million. The total number of jobless claims has hit 30 million since the middle of March. The amount of consumer spending has decreased 7.5% in the last month which is the steepest decline in a month of the stock market since 1959. As I always say on this site, it is important to keep your money invested in the market even though these are trying times. It may seem like keeping your money in the market is not the correct decision, but I promise that it will pay off in the long run. There has also been a new drug that has been introduced to possibly stop the spread of the virus. This vaccine could either wipe the virus out cold or slow it down tremendously. The optimism surrounding this drug will help the markets go higher and help the economy out tremendously.
4/30 Word of the day: Bull Market: a market that is on the rise and when the economy is sound
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