Here is the April, 25th edition of the Weekly Wealth Management Insights update from Crown Haven Wealth Advisors, Indiana’s #1 independent and fiduciary full-service firm.

Q1 GDP Ahead – A report scheduled to be released on Thursday will show whether the U.S. economy’s strong late 2021 momentum carried over into early 2022. The government will release its initial estimate of first-quarter GDP growth. In the previous quarter, the economy expanded at an annual rate of 6.9%; for full-year 2021, the rate was 5.7% on an inflation-adjusted basis-the fastest growth since 1984.

Peak to Valley – A strong start wasn’t enough to prevent the major U.S. stock indexes from falling for the third week in a row, resulting in declines of around 2% to 4%. The market had been on track for a positive week until Thursday morning, when stocks began a steep descent that extended into Friday amid further signs of tightening monetary policy.

Half-Point Hike? – It’s looking increasingly likely that the U.S. Federal Reserve will accelerate the pace of its interest-rate increases, based on public comments Thursday from Jerome Powell. The Fed chair said the central bank is likely to raise its benchmark rate by a half percentage point at its meeting on May 4. It’s more typical for the Fed to raise rates by a quarter point at a time, as it did in its March meeting.

U.K. Anxiety – A British stock index fell 1.4% on Friday and the pound dropped to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar since 2020. The moves came after a government report showed that U.K. retail sales fell by 1.4% in March. In addition, British consumer sentiment tumbled to its second-lowest monthly reading since records began nearly 50 years ago.

If you are in the Indianapolis area and looking for financial advice we are happy to have the meeting with you in person at our offices in Carmel, Indiana, by Zoom or over the phone. Visit our “Schedule An Appointment” page and book a 15-minute “Relationship Building Call” to start the process. The goal during this brief conversation is to understand what your unique goals and objectives are and whether or not Crown Haven can serve as an ideal fit to help.

Top News to Watch This Week

Inflation Checkup – A Consumer Price Index report scheduled to be released on Tuesday will show whether the U.S. economy got any relief in March from surging inflation. A month earlier, the government reported that inflation accelerated in February at a 7.9% annual rate the highest in four decades-eclipsing the previous month’s 7.5% figure.

Weekly Wealth Management Insight

Fed Outlook – Wednesday’s release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s mid-March meeting showed that policymakers discussed the possibility of raising the Fed’s benchmark interest rate by a half-percentage point at a meeting scheduled early next month. At the recent meeting, officials considered raising the rate by a half-point, but instead approved a smaller quarter-point increase.

Tight Labor Market – With the U.S. unemployment rate at just 3.6%, initial applications for unemployment benefits are also dropping to unusually low levels. Thursday’s latest weekly count of unemployment claims fell to 166,000-the lowest weekly figure since 1968, and down 5,000 from the previous week.

Earnings Slowdown – Relative to recent quarters, expectations are low heading into earnings season, which opens this week as major banks begin reporting first-quarter results. As of Friday, analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting companies in the S&P 500 to post earnings increases averaging 4.5% compared with the same period a year earlier. If the growth rate ends up close to that figure, it would mark the first time in two years that quarterly earnings growth fell short of 10%.