Market Commentary for the week of July 9, 2018

The Markets

Stocks bounced Friday as a positive jobs report offset trade war anxieties. The rosy report showed a bigger increase in new jobs than expected, moderate wage growth and a slight rise in the unemployment rate. There were also positive revisions for the April and May jobs reports. The wealth of good news helped the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ hit their highest levels in two weeks. For the week, the Dow rose 1.05 percent to close at 24,456.48. The S&P gained 1.64 percent to finish at 2,759.82, and the NASDAQ climbed 2.46 percent to end the week at 7,688.39.

Source: Morningstar.com. *Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. Three- and five-year returns are annualized. The Dow Jones Industrials, MSCI EAFE, Barclays US Agg Bond and S&P, excluding “1 Week” returns, are based on total return, which is a reflection of return to an investor by reinvesting dividends after the deduction of withholding tax. The NASDAQ is based on price return, which is the capital appreciation of the portfolio, excluding income generated by the assets in the portfolio in the form of interest and dividends. (TR) indicates total return. (PR) indicates price return. MSCI EAFE returns stated in U.S. dollars.

In the Black — From October 2008, through March 2012, the U.S. government had 42 consecutive months of deficits. Since then (i.e., April 2012 through May 2018), the U.S. government has generated a surplus in 23 of 74 months or 31 percent of the time (source: Treasury Department, BTN Research).

Older Folks — Since 1950, the population of the United States has doubled, while the number of Americans at least age 65 has quadrupled (source: Social Security).

A Thousand a Week Per Household — Retail sales, tracked monthly in the United States, exceeded $500 billion for the first time ever in May 2018 ($502 billion). That’s equal to $4,184 for every household in the country for the month of May. Retail sales include purchases of groceries, prescription drugs, appliances, furniture, gasoline, clothes, dining out, etc. (source: Commerce Department).

WEEKLY FOCUS – Keeping Your Child Safe on the Internet

“Out of sight, out of mind.” An old proverb meaning you quickly forget, or don’t think about, people or things not visible or present. It might be old, but it has new relevance when it comes to the internet and our children’s and grandchildren’s security.

Today, invisible people are identity thieves, data miners and online predators. It’s easy to think we’ll just keep our children offline, but reality is that the internet is firmly woven into our daily lives. Here’s another old proverb that deserves a new look: “Forewarned is forearmed.” If we know what can happen, we can take steps to protect our most vulnerable. Here are a few things to be aware of – and steps you can take to avoid.

Smart toys may be high on a young one’s gift list, but those toys could come with prying eyes. Children are targeted because they have pristine credit histories and unused Social Security numbers – just what hackers need for identity theft. Make sure the smart toy you buy has a solid, easy-to-understand privacy policy. Don’t give any more information than is necessary, and be sure children turn the toy off when not using it.

Social media is location-aware and can allow kids to inadvertently provide online predators with not only their location, but also their status. A casual tweet or post of “Hanging out by myself today – totally bored” is a potential disaster waiting to happen. Turn off the location-sharing function on children’s devices both in their phone settings and apps. Modify the stranger-danger warning for online use. Make sure the kids never give out their address, school name, where they are or will be. No should be their automatic answer when asked to share their location.

Home assistants like Alexa and Google Home present their own privacy issues. These devices are designed to collect and store enormous amounts of data gleaned from conversations, and it’s still unclear what companies do with it. Turn off microphones when the assistant isn’t in use. You can also remove information in your devices’ app settings, so it’s not stored on the phone or in the companies’ cloud servers.

Online security is no laughing matter. Neither is financial security. 

* The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged group of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks. NASDAQ Composite Index is an unmanaged, market-weighted index of all over-the-counter common stocks traded on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System. The Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe, Australia and Far East Index (MSCI EAFE Index) is a widely recognized benchmark of non-U.S. stock markets. It is an unmanaged index composed of a sample of companies representative of the market structure of 20 European and Pacific Basin countries and includes reinvestment of all dividends. Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index is an unmanaged index comprised of U.S. investment-grade, fixed-rate bond market securities, including government, government agency, corporate and mortgage-backed securities between one and 10 years. Written by Securities America, Copyright July 2018. All rights reserved. Securities offered through Securities America, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. SAI#2172764.1