Stocks jumped in early trading Thursday as investors shrugged off fears of higher interest rates. The 10-year yield pulled back from a 4-year high, which caused some investors to push the sell button towards the end of the trading day Wednesday. John Petrides, Managing Director & Portfolio Manager at Point View Wealth Management was with us to give us the good and the bad of the current state of the markets.
Investors aren't too complacent. He said they were in 2017. Volatility over the last 3 weeks has brought everyone back to a "normalized state," according to Petrides. He believes the market is pricing in the possibility of a fourth rate hike, adding to the volatility.
Even in a rising rate environment, Petrides thinks stocks can still rise. He said the markets have been propped up by the Fed, but now stocks will have to growth through strong earnings and demand for their goods and services.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
