About last week’s downswing…

The markets certainly had an interesting week last week. Several days seemed noteworthy as volatility reared its not so ugly head and took a pound of investors flesh. (In the neighborhood of a trillion dollars I am told.) Some investors will always buy at the top. For better or worse, large swings in the market tend to catch the eye of the public and the media. The reasons given by the experts are numerous. All of them completely logical but some with an element of sophism. On the 5th, the SPX lost 114 points and on the 8th it was off 104. Big numbers indeed when referring to absolutes, but in percentage neither of these ranked in the top twenty of all time losses.

How things get framed can truly influence how we perceive them. But the facts are these:

The domestic job market is healthy, the tax cuts will benefit the economy for a period of time, the world economy is in stable to good condition, and our financial system is much sounder than it was 10 years ago.

One last fact to leave you with. Daily market returns are pretty close to random. This means a coin flip is a good indicator of daily market direction. But over the long term market returns trend upward and everyone knows the trend is your friend.

LaSalle St. Investment Advisors, LLC
940 N. Industrial Dr.
Elmhurst, IL 60126