The State Of Your Portfolio

This week was the President’s annual State of the Union address.  As of just a couple weeks ago we didn’t know if this address would take place.  But the temporary end to the shutdown allowed for that talk to subside.

And as a reminder, the looming deadline of February 15th still remains for the next shutdown if the two parties don’t make any progress on funding.

These Presidential addresses can provide an annual setting to the priorities of the year ahead.  Although many of the points expressed may already be somewhat known by the audience, it is still beneficial to hear the summary.  Then you can take that information paired with much additional details and begin to translate these to your portfolio. Another way of saying this is who were the winners and losers for investing.

Winners: Infrastructure and Defense Companies

Losers: Drug companies due to lower medicine prices

The biggest winner?  The overall broad market.

The President’s address benefited the overall broad market as a whole.  The reason for this was his toned down comments for his projects, such as the border wall.  Of course there are areas that may benefit more than others, but we will look for real progress now, not just the words that were expressed.  His ability to address the nation and not appear like his Twitter personality proved favorable overall to the market.

Investors don’t like when there is in-fighting over issues as it halts progress, further affecting the success of our economy.

Of course there is still a larger issue that is looming over the market and that is global tension with China.  We saw comments on Thursday pull the market back because progress may not be moving as quickly as hoped.  We will continue to watch as new comments are made about this area.

Even with all of the moving pieces and unknown final details that will come, you, as an investor, are the winner when you continue to make progress!  As long as you don’t stop because of these global or political issues you’re faced with then you come out ahead. This means that as you continue to pay down debt and save into your portfolio over the years, you benefit from lower prices to buy and higher prices to sell.  The state of your portfolio is dependent on your continued actions toward progress as well as economic and market success.

Wondering how this affects your investments? Schedule a call with Michelle and Steve to discuss your portfolio today.