In today\u2019s Steady\nInvestor, we take a look at key factors that we believe are currently impacting\nthe market, such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Noticing Higher Gas\nPrices? They Could Keep Climbing \u2013 <\/strong>It\u2019s\nnot just your city or town where gas prices are inching \u2013 or perhaps even\nclimbing \u2013 higher. Gas prices reached a national average of $2.88 a gallon last\nweek, which reflects a 30% increase from the same time last year. Of course,\nlooking back one year, the U.S. and global economy were on lockdown, and\ngasoline refiners were anticipating the impact of a major recession. An outlook\nof plummeting demand pushed refiners to make major cuts to output, bringing\nboth supply and demand \u2013 and thus prices \u2013 downward. The opposite seems to be\ntrue looking ahead to this spring and summer, as vaccination rates are up and\nCovid-19 deaths and hospitalizations continue to trend lower. Americans are\nhitting the road for spring break vacations and are likely planning even more\ntravel over the summer, which has put upward pressure on crude oil and gas\nprices. The winter freeze in Texas also knocked back supply just as demand was\nstarting to trend firmly higher.1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n ______________________________________________________________________________________________<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Build Your Ultimate Retirement Portfolio! <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Events in the pandemic, such as gas prices\nclimbing and inflation, are only a few examples of what\u2019s causing the market to\nshift significantly. Vaccination rates are rising and COVID-19 cases are\ndropping, but what does this mean for the market and investors who are trying\nto build their retirement portfolio? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, there are many uncertainties when looking toward the\nfuture of the market. The best approach for dealing with this uncertainty is\nlearning how to navigate these challenging times. We believe it is possible to\navoid the damage of economic downturns and achieve your retirement goals.\nHowever, achieving these goals involves some work: defining your investment\nobjectives, determining your asset allocation, managing investments over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help you do this, we are offering readers our free guide\nthat offers a step-by-step blueprint of our customized investing process to\npotentially help you build a sound retirement portfolio of your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get this guide to\nlearn our ideas on building and maintaining a retirement portfolio to\npotentially achieve your long-term goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get our FREE guide:\u00a07 Secrets to Building the Ultimate DIY Retirement Portfolio<\/a>2<\/a><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ______________________________________________________________________________________________<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Fed Chairman\nTalks Inflation \u2013 <\/strong>Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified before\nlawmakers this week, and one of the main topics of interest was the elephant in\n2021\u2019s room: inflation. The financial news media has been abuzz in speculation\nover how the new $1.9 trillion stimulus bill \u2013 and all the stimulus that came\nbefore it \u2013 may or may not lead to high inflation in the coming quarters or\nyears. Chairman Powell seemed to err on the side of not worrying: \u201c[The Fed]\nmight see some upward pressure on prices. Our best view is that the effect on\ninflation will be neither particularly large nor persistent.\u201d He also added\nthat the Fed, for now, remains strongly committed to the accommodative policy\ngiven that the economic recovery still has plenty of runway. Overall, Mr.\nPowell set out to make clear that he did not believe a one-time spending surge\nwould lead to sustained inflation, particularly since the economy has been\nbattling deflationary pressures for over a decade now. Even still, the Federal\nReserve has tools to beat back inflation if it becomes an issue.3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Housing Market\nStrength Continues. Can It Last? \u2013 <\/strong>Housing market strength in the U.S.\ncontinues apace, and for the second time ever, there are more real estate\nagents than there are homes for sale. At the end of January, there were 1.04\nmillion homes for sale and 1.45 million agents, which marks a 26% decline in\nhomes for sale and a 4.8% increase in agents available to sell them. The\nrecord-low number of homes available for sale could ultimately place even more\nprice pressure on the market, as the spring season generally tends to boost\ndemand. Existing home sales fell 6.6% in February, which still marked a 9.1%\nincrease from the previous year. On average nationwide, houses are selling in\nless than three weeks. Low-interest rates and remote-work capabilities have\ndriven a big part of demand, which begs the question of whether a full\nreopening coupled with upward pressure on interest rates will abate the trend.4<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ship Gets Stuck in\nSuez Canal, May Lead to Even More Supply Chain Bottlenecks \u2013 <\/strong>Supply chains\nhave already been compromised by the pandemic, but matters may have been made\nslightly worse this week when a ground container ship got stuck in the 120-mile\ncanal connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean. The Suez Canal is a key\nroute for tankers carrying oil and natural gas, as well as manufactured goods\nlike electronics and machinery from Asia and bound for Europe. If the vessel\nclogs the canal for any more than one day, the implications on supply chains\ncan become significant, adding costs and delays to a logistics industry already\nfar behind.5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n As we experience this plethora of events that are causing a volatile market, know that there are still things you can do to protect your investments. You can create a retirement portfolio that meets your financial goals. To help you do this, I recommend reading our guide,\u00a07 Secrets to Building the Ultimate DIY Retirement Portfolio<\/em>.6<\/sup>\u00a0It 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. More travel expected to fuel gas price rise, Powell sanguine about inflation, real estate agents outnumber homes for sale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-private-client-group","category-steady-investors-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9449","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=9449"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10424,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9449\/revisions\/10424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get this guide to learn our ideas on the step-by-step process to building and maintaining a retirement portfolio that will potentially help you reach your goals and enjoy a secure retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"