by Peter Wechsler
President & Co-Founder, Franklin Retirement Solutions
[email protected]
It’s noon on Thursday as I pen this column. Don’t tell anybody, but I’m taking off the rest of the afternoon and tomorrow as I have 23 family and friends coming to the first night of Passover on Saturday night. Lots of work to do although the brisket and chicken soup are made and all ready to go. Sunday night Jeremy, Chris, Kevin, and I will head to the Bronx for the second seder with my dear friends Lisa and Harold. Looking forward!
THE MARKETS
With a little bit of luck, the markets will be quiet the next few days after Wednesday’s sharp reversal. All of Trump’s proposed tariffs (except those on China) were suspended for 90 days. Even so, as of now, the S&P is still down 11.3% year to date and off 15% from its mid-February high. So, we’re not out of the woods yet. So far today, the S&P is down 5.5%, giving back a lot of yesterday’s gains.
As my team has written many times recently, the markets hate chaos and uncertainty, and the chaos will continue because nobody knows what’s going to happen in 90 days. Will we go into a recession as many economists are now saying? Will inflation shoot up with the 125% tariff on imports from China? Will the unemployment numbers shoot up in the months ahead? Will the markets rebound or continue the slide? More questions than answers.
ROTH CONVERSIONS
If you’ve contemplated doing Roth conversions, now would be a great time. If your IRA or 401(k) funds are in the market, they most likely have suffered losses this year. Doing conversions now enables you to move more shares of stocks or mutual funds now than before the market tumble. Want to discuss? We can help you and we have the software to navigate the conversions.
PORTFOLIO RISK
With all this uncertainty, do you have more market risk than you would like? Our risk-free toolbox has a number of tools including treasuries, fixed and fixed indexed annuities, and high-yield money market funds. Let us know if the markets are causing you sleepless nights.
If you are celebrating Passover, know that this is still the most observed holiday on the Jewish calendar. And with the crazy year so far, have an extra matzah ball. Why not?
Enjoy the weekend…
Peter