7 Secrets to Building the Ultimate Retirement Portfolio in 2024!<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Feeling overwhelmed by retirement planning is normal, but you don’t have to navigate it alone. Achieving your financial goals involves some work: Defining your investing objectives, determining your asset allocation, and managing investments over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Zacks, we manage retirement portfolios every day and understand the time and effort it takes. So, to help you, we are offering readers our free guide, 7 Secrets to Building the Ultimate DIY Retirement Portfolio3<\/sup><\/a><\/em><\/span><\/strong>, which offers a step-by-step blueprint of our customized investing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have $500,000 or more to invest, download your free guide today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get our FREE guide: 7 Secrets to Building the Ultimate DIY Retirement Portfolio2<\/sup><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The CPI Measure of Inflation Eased in April, Providing Relief to Investors and the Fed<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Equity markets seemed to welcome the inflation news, with the S&P 500 rising to a record high along with the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. With retail sales also coming in lighter-than-expected, and April jobs growth marking a steep decline from March payrolls, the U.S. economy is seen as slowing as inflation modestly ticked lower. Bond prices seemed to suggest that the Fed could be closer to cutting interest rates as well\u2014yields on 2-year U.S. Treasury bonds fell on the news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pressure is On for Corporations to Beat Earnings Expectations<\/strong> \u2013 S&P 500 companies are poised to deliver year-over-year earnings growth of 5.4%, the largest increase in almost two years. But with the S&P 500 trading at around 20x forward earnings, there\u2019s a good argument that Wall Street has already priced in better-than-expected earnings, leaving corporations very little wiggle room for disappointment. Indeed, companies that have missed on earnings have seen their shares fall an average of -2.8%, which is higher than the five-year average of -2.3%. And on the flip side of the equation, corporations that have exceeded expectations have only seen shares rise an average of 1%, largely in line with the five-year average of 0.9%. The Federal Reserve may also be influencing the higher bar for U.S. corporate earnings. With falling expectations for rate cuts in 2024, investors have had to factor in a higher discount rate for future cash flows, which is making stocks look more expensive relative to bonds.4<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Share Buybacks Rose Sharply in Q1 2024<\/strong> \u2013 The message corporations are sending to markets, however, is that businesses and balance sheets are in good shape. In addition to better-than-expected earnings, companies have been buying back shares at a strong pace so far in 2024. S&P 500 companies announced nearly $200 billion in share buybacks in Q1, a 16% increase from the same period in 2023. Around 443 companies have announced plans to buy back shares, which is up from 378 a year ago. Companies typically buy back shares to boost shareholder equity by reducing the number of shares outstanding, and they can be a signal to markets that the business is confident about the growth outlook. By some estimates, S&P 500 share buybacks could reach $925 billion in 2024, an annual growth rate of 13%.5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n As we wait to see how the market will be impacted by these events, there are things you can do now to protect your investments and create a retirement portfolio that meets your financial goals. To help you do this, we recommend reading our guide, 7 Secrets to Building the Ultimate DIY Retirement Portfolio.6<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/em><\/strong> It provides a step-by-step blueprint of our customized investing process to potentially help you build a sound retirement portfolio of your own and pursue long-term investing success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get this guide to help you reach your goals and enjoy a secure retirement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Investors and Fed welcome latest inflation numbers, corporations feel pressure to beat earnings expectations, Q1 sees sharp increase in share buybacks <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-private-client-group","category-steady-investors-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13173"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13176,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13173\/revisions\/13176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/image-1-1024x350.png\")