In today\u2019s Steady\nInvestor, we dive into current news and key indicators in the market that we\nbelieve investors should consider such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mixed Messages in the\nU.S. Labor Market \u2013 <\/strong>Last\nweek\u2019s April jobs report puzzled many economists, who were expecting close to 1\nmillion new jobs and instead got a seasonally adjusted 266,000. Especially\ndisappointing was the plummet in the pace of hiring, which had hit 770,000 in\nMarch only to fizzle in April. Even still, the number of job openings in April grew,\nwith job postings sitting 24% higher than they were in February 2020, the month\nleading into the pandemic. The gap between job openings and jobs added in April\nset off quite a bit of debate among economists and politicians alike. The\nactual reason for the soft showing in April could come from many factors \u2013 lack\nof child care, expanded unemployment benefits, persistent fear of Covid-19, or\nbusinesses not paying attractive enough wages. According to the National\nFederation of Independent Business, 44% of small-business owners reported job\nopenings they could not fill in April, which was the highest reading since the\n1970s.1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n From Corn to Copper,\nPrice Pressures Continue \u2013 <\/strong>Corn\nis joining a slew of other agricultural goods, raw materials, and commodities whose\nprices have been under pressure for the last several months. Corn is the U.S.\u2019s\nlargest cash crop, and its price has risen by roughly 50% in 2021, making a\nbushel of corn cost more than twice what it did just a year ago. Price\npressures in corn and other raw goods are forcing the hands of many companies,\nas they scramble to pass along costs in an effort to avoid too much margin\npressure. This issue has been especially prevalent in lumber, which is now four\ntimes its typical price, and copper, which recently shot through to record\nprices. But the widespread nature of the price pressures is what is concerning\nmany with regards to inflation. Crude oil is putting pressure on gasoline\nprices, and even soybeans are trading at their highest in a decade.2<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n ______________________________________________________________________________________________<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Evaluating Your Net Worth and Why It Matters!<\/a><\/strong> ______________________________________________________________________________________________<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Credit Card Debt\nContinues to Fall, Spurring Issuers to Step-Up Offers \u2013 <\/strong>Despite many of the\neconomic struggles endured in the months after the pandemic, American\nhouseholds appear to be in reasonably good financial shape. One anecdotal piece\nof evidence: U.S. consumers are paying down credit cards at a pace not seen in\nyears. According to Equifax, U.S. credit card balances totaled $749 billion in\nMarch, which was down 14.5% from a year prior. Consumers were also using an\naverage of 18% of their available credit, which was down from 21% the previous\nyear and also marks the lowest level since 2009 (according to Equifax\u2019s\nrecords). This is great news for U.S. households, but not so much for the\ncredit card issuers. Big issuers like Discover Financial, Capital One, and\nSynchrony Financial (which issues store credit cards), are reporting that\nbalances are down \u2013 which means interest payments are also down. Of course, a\nfew installments of government stimulus payments may have helped many families\nsave and pay down debt, but credit card issuers are also wondering if\nhistorically low credit card balances are a by-product of the pandemic that\ncould become more permanent. In response, many are stepping up their marketing\nefforts and sending new offers. If you notice more offers in the mail, now you\nknow why.4<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Importance of Knowing Your Net Worth<\/strong> \u2013 If the\nuncertainty of today\u2019s market has shown us anything, it is that we never know what\nthe future holds. But that does not mean there are not steps you can take to\nprepare for what\u2019s to come. Knowing your net worth can be critical to your\nfinancial well-being and can help you prepare for what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evaluating your net worth may give you a better idea of\nwhere you stand in terms of your long-term investment goals. If you do not\ncurrently know your net worth, then now may be a great time to calculate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to\nunderstand how to measure your net worth, download our guide Measuring Your\nNet Worth<\/em>.5 <\/sup>Simply click on the link below to get your copy\ntoday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Americans are paying off credit cards, new hires plummeted in April, prices rising throughout economy<\/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-9595","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\/9595","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=9595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10396,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9595\/revisions\/10396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Are you looking to improve your long-term investment strategy? Well, evaluating your net worth is a great place to start! The market is currently very volatile, and in times like these, it\u2019s better for investors, especially those who are looking to retire, to prepare and protect their finances for what\u2019s ahead. Here at Zacks, we want to help make the retirement process easier! One step you can take is understanding your current net worth. To help you do this, we are offering our guide, Measuring Your Net Worth.<\/em>
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If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to understand how to measure your net worth, download our guide Measuring Your Net Worth<\/em>.3<\/sup>\u00a0Simply click on the link below to get your copy today!
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<\/a>Download Zacks Guide, Measuring Your Net Worth<\/a>3<\/a><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n