June 30th Weekly Market Update
At this year’s halfway point, we are pleased to offer the LPL Financial Research Mid-Year Outlook 2014: Investor’s Almanac Field Notes key observations and updates to our outlook for 2014. Similar to a farming almanac, our is a publication containing a guide to patterns, tendencies, and seasonal observations important to growing. The goal of farming is not merely to grow crops, but to sustain living things — investing shares the same goal.
As we expected, markets in 2014 have been less influenced by politics and policymakers than in 2013 and more dependent upon growth. Growth is an essential characteristic of all living things, and in 2014, growth is vital to our outlook for the economy and markets. Our notes from the field contain these key observations and reaffirm our forecasts for the second half:
After an extreme winter weather-induced slowdown in the first quarter, the U.S. economy began to thaw with the warmer temperatures in the spring. We continue to believe U.S. economic growth is on track to accelerate by about 1% over last year, owing to the return of business spending and the elimination of the drag from fiscal policy. As a result, the Federal Reserve (Fed) is likely to continue to taper its bond purchases and end its bond-buying program in the fall, leaving rate hikes on the calendar for some time next year.
For the full article: Investor’s Almanac Field Notes