In this week\u2019s Steady Investor, we look at key\nstories and the questions surrounding their market impact such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Markets Largely\nIgnore Impeachment Trial \u2013 <\/strong>As the impeachment trial got underway in the\nSenate this week, the equity market continued to tick higher. The market\u2019s\nambivalence to the impeachment proceedings comes as little surprise \u2013 during\nBill Clinton\u2019s presidency, from the start of Congress\u2019 impeachment inquiry to\nactual impeachment, the S&P 500 went up +23%. In the twelve months that\nfollowed the Senate\u2019s acquittal of Clinton, the S&P 500 went up an\nadditional +19%.1 <\/sup>A similar pattern has emerged during President\nTrump\u2019s impeachment, with the market rallying through the House proceedings and\nnow remaining largely stable as the Senate takes up the matter. The conclusion for\ninvestors, in our view, is not necessarily that impeachments are meaningless\nfor markets \u2013 political outcomes do matter. But once the information is known\nand the equity market can \u201cprice-in\u201d the outcome (in this case, near-certain\nacquittal for President Trump), then there is not much room for positive or\nnegative surprises \u2013 which are ultimately what move markets in the short term,\nin our view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ___________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download Our Dean\u2019s List of Investment Strategies!<\/a><\/strong> ___________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coronavirus Outbreak Continues\nto Grow \u2013 <\/strong>Headlines were jittery this week, with growing reports of\npatients affected with the coronavirus. The virus originated in the highly-populated\ncity of Wuhan, China, which also serves as a major travel hub for Southeast\nAsia. As of this writing, there are over 500 confirmed cases of the virus with\n17 reported deaths, numbers that are likely to grow in the coming days and\nweeks. The spread of the virus comes at a very inopportune time, in that many\nChinese nationals are set to travel for the Lunar New Year holiday, which spans\nfrom seven days to up to an entire month. Many market-watchers were reminded of\nthe SARS outbreak back in 2002, which also overlapped with the Lunar New Year\nholiday and killed 774 globally after it first appeared in southern China.4<\/sup>\nThe global health system is more sophisticated today than it was in 2002, so we\nshould expect to see more effective containment of the virus\u2019s spread. Though\ntime will tell. In the meantime, China has halted outbound flights and trains\nin Wuhan, as well as shutting down public transportation and putting the city\non lockdown. But we expect the problem to get worse before it gets better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n New Front for the Trade War? <\/strong>Just days after the US signed a\nPhase 1 trade deal with China, the Trump Administration hinted that it may have\na new front for the trade war: Europe. The root of the budding trade dispute\nwith Europe centers around a \u201cdigital tax,\u201d a 3% levy on American tech\ncompanies earning revenue in France. The issue had taken broader appeal once\nthe European commission had unveiled a proposal for taxing US tech companies\nacross the 28-nation European Union, a move that the Trump administration\nwarned would result in tariffs on European goods.5<\/sup> A trade war with\nEurope would bring a far wider range of goods into play, since the US exports\nthree times more to the European Union than it does to China. With the European\nUnion already posting feeble growth amid rising political uncertainty, however,\nUS tariffs would surely sting at a vulnerable time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Job Openings in the U.S. on the\nDecline \u2013 <\/strong>the US\neconomy continues to add new jobs at a steady pace, but many employers are citing\nlabor shortages as a reason for waning demand to fill new positions. According\nto the Labor Department, job openings fell 10.8% in November from a year\nearlier, which marks the 6th<\/sup> consecutive month of annual declines.6<\/sup>\nTo be sure, the number of available jobs in the US still outnumbers the\nunemployed workers in America, so anyone who wants a job in the US can get one.\nBut declining job openings could be a precursor to slower business investment\nand growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no\nway to know exactly where the market is headed or how these stories will pan\nout, but finding the right investment strategy can make a huge difference when\nmanaging the highs and lows of the market. To help you learn more about\nstrategies that cater to different investment objectives, we have created our\nDean\u2019s List of Investment Strategies.7<\/sup> New trade conflict in Europe, impeachment already \u201cpriced in\u201d, Chinese city on virus lockdown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mitch-on-the-markets","category-private-client-group"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8471","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=8471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10646,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8471\/revisions\/10646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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You can\u2019t predict how these events will affect the economy or when the next downturn will occur. But the right investment strategy can make a huge difference in preparing your long-term investments for success.
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To help you learn more about strategies that cater to different investment objectives, we have created our Dean\u2019s List of Investment Strategies.\u00a0Our Dean\u2019s List describes five of our investment strategies that are ranked in the top 7% of their respective classes according to Morningstar<\/strong>\u00a0(as of 12\/31\/19).2<\/sup>
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If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn about five of our top strategies, click on the link below.
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Learn More About Our Top-Ranked Strategies!<\/a>3<\/a><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nOur Dean\u2019s List describes five of our investment\nstrategies that are ranked in the top 7% of their respective classes according\nto Morningstar (as of 12\/31\/19).8<\/sup> If you have $500,000 or more\nto invest and want to learn more about these strategies, click on the link\nbelow to see how they could potentially benefit you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"