By Peter Wechsler
President & Co-Founder, Franklin Retirement Solutions
[email protected]
Hoping everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving weekend, even if you watched the Eagles last Friday. Now we are on to Christmas, New Year’s, and cold weather. I’m already looking forward to spring.
November saw a flat S&P 500 and a 1.5% pullback in the Nasdaq. After 6 good months in the market, it was time for a breather. But now folks are starting to focus on 2026. Clients are concerned about how long the markets can keep going up. We don’t know, but it’s not a bad time to take a look at the percentage of risk in your portfolio.
Ultimately stock market returns are a product of corporate profits. Corporate profits are a product of consumer spending, inflation, interest rates, and unemployment, to name a few. So what’s in the news these days? As a religious daily reader of the Wall Street Journal for over 50 years (I read the Philadelphia Inquirer daily also), I get a good feel for markets and consumers day after day.
Below are 4 headlines from the Tuesday 12/2/25 edition of the Journal:
• American Consumers Lose Patience With High Car Prices
• U.S. Manufacturing Contracts for Ninth Straight Month
• Three Mile Island’s (TMI) Nuclear Revival Pits Those Who Fled Against Job Seekers
• How the Trump Administration Aimed Tariff Exemptions at Rising Food Costs
These headlines make heads spin for economists and market analysts. What will the Supreme Court decide on the tariffs? Will there be enough money to reopen TMI? Will “affordability” stay in the headlines? There’s always a lot going on in the world and in the U.S., so it’s not unusual for heads to spin…but it’s still no fun.
As with the internet 25 years ago, AI today is changing everything. Three Mile Island is looking to reopen one of its towers to provide energy for AI structures. How will AI change the employment picture? Can we produce enough energy to supply AI needs? What will all this do to corporate profits?
Plenty of questions. Few answers. Lots of food for thought. After all this, enjoy the weekend…
Peter