The Big Picture
MAY 5, 2023
Imagine you had a device that allowed you to peer into the future. You enter a subject matter into this machine, requesting a specific quantitative measure, and at a specific future time. In other words, Price and Date. The machine whirrs and spins, lights flash, bells ring, and out pops a chart showing a range of answers and their probabilities. You might imagine a machine like that would be worth a lot.
Calculated Risk
MAY 5, 2023
The headline jobs number in the April employment report was above expectations, however employment for the previous two months was revised down by 149,000, combined. The participation rate and employment population ratio were unchanged, and the unemployment rate decreased to 3.4%. This is the lowest unemployment rate since 1969 (over 50 years ago), and the unemployment rate hasn't been lower since 1953!
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The Big Picture
MAY 5, 2023
My end-of-week morning NFP train WFH reads: • Warren Buffett’s Formula for Success: One Good Decision Every Five Years : Berkshire Hathaway has obliterated the market in his 58 years at the company. He credits roughly 12 decisions. ( Wall Street Journal ) see also The 10 Greatest US Investors and the Virtues That Made Them : There can be few fields of human endeavor in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance.
Calculated Risk
MAY 5, 2023
From the BLS : Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 253,000 in April, and the unemployment rate changed little at 3.4 percent , the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment continued to trend up in professional and business services, health care, leisure and hospitality, and social assistance. The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised down by 78,000, from +326,000 to +248,000, and the change for March was revised down by 71,000, from +236,000 t
Wealth Management
MAY 5, 2023
Cushman & Wakefield named Michelle Mackay as its new CEO and also announced the passing of John C. Cushman, III. Bisnow examined the “weird” real estate holdings of the British royal family. These are among the must reads from around the real estate investment world to end the week.
Calculated Risk
MAY 5, 2023
From the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Rail Time Indicators. Graphs and excerpts reprinted with permission. Rail intermodal continues to struggle. U.S. intermodal volume was 12.7% lower in April 2023 than in April 2022. April’s decline was the 14th straight and 20th in the past 21 months. In 2023 through April, volume was 3.97 million containers and trailers, down 10.9% (484,228) from last year and the fewest for January to April since 2012.
Financial Advisor Source brings together the best content for financial advisor professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Nerd's Eye View
MAY 5, 2023
Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week’s edition kicks off with the news that the House Financial Services Committee unanimously passed a bill that would direct the SEC to conduct a study and carry out a rulemaking on the definition of a "small entity" to reduce the compliance burden on small businesses, presumably including RIAs.
Wealth Management
MAY 5, 2023
Riskalyze CEO Aaron Klein provides his take on the biggest news to hit advisor technology in the previous month.
Abnormal Returns
MAY 5, 2023
Strategy The stock market is almost always in a drawdown. (awealthofcommonsense.com) Which of these three investment personalities (loner, follower, or zombie) do you possess? (morningstar.com) Companies Apple ($AAPL) continues to grow services revenue, now up to 20% of sales. (sixcolors.com) Tech companies are going to start ramping up their AI spending.
Wealth Management
MAY 5, 2023
Long-term, sustained growth is critical for advisors, and support of that objective should be top of mind as advisors consider a transition.
Speaker: Claire Grosjean, Global Finance & Operations Executive
Finance teams are drowning in data—but is it actually helping them spend smarter? Without the right approach, excess spending, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities continue to drain profitability. While analytics offers powerful insights, financial intelligence requires more than just numbers—it takes the right blend of automation, strategy, and human expertise.
The Reformed Broker
MAY 5, 2023
Welcome to the latest episode of The Compound & Friends. This week, Michael Batnick, Ian Dunlap, Leanna Haakons and Downtown Josh Brown discuss regional banks, the importance of Apple’s earnings, how AI is changing the labor market, TEN STRAIGHT RATE HIKES, the Coinbase shareholder lawsuit, and much more! You can listen to the whole thing below, or find it wherever you like to listen to your favorite pods!
Wealth Management
MAY 5, 2023
Classic Asset Management will pay more than $933,000 to settle charges with the commission. The settlement comes several months after the SEC’s Exam Division cited leveraged ETFs as a main area of focus.
Calculated Risk
MAY 5, 2023
Today, in the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter: Early Look at Local Housing Markets in April A brief excerpt: This is a look at a few early reporting local markets in April. I’m tracking about 40 local housing markets in the US. Some of the 40 markets are states, and some are metropolitan areas. I’ll update these tables throughout the month as additional data is released.
Wealth Management
MAY 5, 2023
More than $6.6 billion in assets was transacted this week, while two new firms were launched, an investment bank opened and key positions were created and filled.
Speaker: David Worrell, CFO, Author & Speaker
Your financial statements hold powerful insights—but are you truly paying attention? Many finance professionals focus on the income statement while overlooking key signals hidden in the balance sheet and cash flow statement. Understanding these numbers can unlock smarter decision-making, uncover risks, and drive long-term success. Join David Worrell, accomplished CFO, finance expert, and author, for an engaging, nontraditional take on reading financial statements.
Calculated Risk
MAY 5, 2023
From Manheim Consulting today: Wholesale Used-Vehicle Prices See Sizable Decline in April Wholesale used-vehicle prices (on a mix, mileage, and seasonally adjusted basis) decreased 3.0% in April from March. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index (MUVVI) dropped to 230.8, down 4.4% from a year ago. “While values increased 8.6% through the first quarter from December, the market has reversed course in April, with our monthly figures showing a month-over-month decline for the first time in 2023,” sai
Wealth Management
MAY 5, 2023
The majority of First Republic advisors came to the bank from wirehouses or other large brokerages. Now, they find themselves right back where they started.
Alpha Architect
MAY 5, 2023
No surprise: reddit message boards don't lead to alpha generation. The Reddit Road to Riches? was originally published at Alpha Architect. Please read the Alpha Architect disclosures at your convenience.
Wealth Management
MAY 5, 2023
Catchlight's Yelena Melamed details how AI is being used as a tool to support the human work of financial advice.
Speaker: Erroll Amacker
Automation is transforming finance but without strong financial oversight it can introduce more risk than reward. From missed discrepancies to strained vendor relationships, accounts payable automation needs a human touch to deliver lasting value. This session is your playbook to get automation right. We’ll explore how to balance speed with control, boost decision-making through human-machine collaboration, and unlock ROI with fewer errors, stronger fraud prevention, and smoother operations.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 5, 2023
Jeremy Grantham appeared on David Rosenberg’s "Webcast with Dave" to discuss how he is investing in this increasingly uncertain world and the areas of the market that are not correlated with the recession-bound economy. GMO invited our readers to watch.
MarketWatch
MAY 5, 2023
The World Health Organization on Friday declared an end to the COVID-19 global health emergency. Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he had accepted the advice of an expert committee on the pandemic’s status, adding “it is therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 5, 2023
The weekly leading economic index (WLEI) is a composite for the U.S economy that draws from over 20 time-series and groups them into the following six broad categories which are then used to construct an equally weighted average. The latest index reading came in at -15.6, up 3.82 the previous week.
MarketWatch
MAY 5, 2023
President Joe Biden on Friday talked up the latest jobs report, saying the release’s “really good news is working-age Americans are participating in the labor force at the highest rate in 15 years, not just since the pandemic.” In remarks to reporters before a White House meeting, Biden also reiterated his criticism of House Republicans as Washington’s debt-ceiling standoff continues.
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Advisor Perspectives
MAY 5, 2023
Friday's employment report for April showed a 253,000 increase in total nonfarm payrolls, coming in well above the Investing.com forecast of 180,000 jobs added. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.4%.
MarketWatch
MAY 5, 2023
Cannabis stocks rose Friday in their second day of big gains. The U.S. Senate committee on banking, housing and urban affairs has scheduled a hearing entitled, “Examining Cannabis Banking Challenges of Small Businesses and Workers” on Thursday at 9:45 a.m. in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, according to an announcement. The hearing comes after lawmakers from both chambers filed new versions of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 5, 2023
The S&P 500 finished the week down 0.79% despite Friday's strong rally. The index is currently up 7.73% year to date and is 13.76% below its record close from January 3, 2022.
MarketWatch
MAY 5, 2023
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday announced an award of nearly $279 million to a whistleblower whose information helped the agency with enforcement. It’s the highest amount in the whistleblower program’s history, the agency said, more than doubling a $114 million payment made in October 2020. Gurbir Grewal, the SEC’s enforcement director, said whistleblower tips have aided enforcement actions resulting in bad actors disgorging more than $4 billion in ill-gotten gains and interest.
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Like being inches from the end zone, many advisors are frustratingly close to their next level of success. You work hard. You put in the hours. But if your closing rate is stuck or your pipeline feels like a revolving door… something has to change. Most advisors are just one small shift away from dramatically increasing their revenue. The difference?
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 5, 2023
The yield on the 10-year note ended May 5, 2023 at 3.44%, the 2-year note ended at 3.92%, and the 30-year at 3.76%.
MarketWatch
MAY 5, 2023
AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. AMC shares rose 3.4% in premarket trades Friday, after the movie theater chain and meme stock darling reported better-than-expected first-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings. AMC reported a net loss of $235.5 million, or a net loss of 17 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $337.4 million and a net loss of 33 cents a share in the same period last year.
Advisor Perspectives
MAY 5, 2023
This commentary has been updated to include Friday's release of non-farm employment. April saw a 253,000 increase in total non-farm payrolls. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4%. The Investing.com forecast was for 180,000 jobs gained.
MarketWatch
MAY 5, 2023
What a difference a day makes, as the shares of PacWest Bancorp PACWskyrocketed toward a record one-day gain Friday, after closing the previous session at a record low. The stock, which has already been halted six times for volatility since the open, powered up 77.9% in midday trading, which would surpass the current record gain on a closing basis of 33.9% on March 14, 2023.
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