Financial Planners Ft Myers I Central Banks provide Liquidity

Financial Planners Fort Myers, Florida

The U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, and central banks from Japan, Switzerland, and Canada have all come together to provide increased liquidity to the entire global financial system. The goal of the central banks is to make it less expensive for banks to get U.S. dollar liquidity when they need to access it. In addition to the U.S. dollar support they are also taking measures to establish swap lines in other currencies as well.

Moves of this magnitude like we are seeing today, suggest that the central banks from around the world are very nervous about the uneasiness in the global financial markets. So far today, the markets are responding very positively to this news. We will have to wait and see just how long the markets will keep a positive tone.

Eric Marvin, CFP®, CRPC®

Financial Planner Fort Myers, Florida

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I European Finance Ministers Converge

Financial Planners Fort Myers, Florida

European Finance Ministers from all seventeen countries that use the Euro have descended on Brussels today in order to attempt to stop the run on their currency. The meeting could not have come at a better time because bond yields in Italy continued to move north of seven percent, which remains unsustainable over the long-term.

Among the many topics of the meeting today will be greater integration and uniformity between all seventeen countries. One of the ways to potentially accomplish this is to issue joint Eurobonds, although Germany still denies it has any intention of allowing this action. Sooner or later though, Germany may have to budge on certain issues if they want to continue to use the Euro in its present form into the future.

Eric Marvin, CFP®, CRPC®

Financial Planner

Fort Myers, Florida

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I Cyber Monday

Financial Advisor Fort Myers, Florida

After one the strongest Black Friday’s in quite some time retailers will again be looking to continue the momentum today with Cyber Monday. Historically, deep discounts have been offered on this day to attract those that prefer to shop online rather than physically at the stores.

The stock market also looks to open very strong after the worst Thanksgiving week since 1932. Today also marks the first time that we have had a combination of good news from both the U.S. and Europe in several weeks. Usually, when you combine a flurry of good news after so many negative reports you tend to have a nice rally. Remember though that past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Eric Marvin, CFP®, CRPC®

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I Black Friday

Traditionally the Friday after Thanksgiving has proven to be a positive day for the stock market. However, proving that past performance does not guarantee future results, early on this morning it is looking like our markets are content on ignoring the trends and going about the day at its own pace. With another poor Italian bond auction this morning and the fact that Belgium and Portugal saw their ratings downgraded it is going to prove very difficult to stage a comeback today.

On the positive side of things today, retailers seem to be experiencing strong demand from shoppers across the country looking for those great bargains. Some have even reported that they have sold more merchandise in the first four hours then they did all of Black Friday last year.

Eric Marvin, CFP®, CRPC®

Financial Advisor Fort Myers, Florida

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I German Bund Yields

Financial Planning Ft Myers

Historically speaking the day before Thanksgiving is generally a positive day for the stock market. That pattern appears to be skipping over this year due to all of the extreme volatility that remains present in the global financial markets. One interesting development to take note of today is the fact that the yield on a German 10-Yr Bund is now paying 13 basis points over a 10-Yr Treasury. The last time the yields crossed each other like this was in May of 2009.

I can’t predict the future, but this tells me that the world is demanding a higher rate of return to hold German Bunds, which for the longest time throughout this Eurozone crisis have remained a safe haven.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Eric Marvin, CFP®, CRPC®

Financial Planner

Fort Myers, Florida

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I Revised 3rd Quarter GDP Results

Gross Domestic Product grew at an annual rate of 2% in the third quarter compared to previous expectations of 2.5%. As expected, the market is reacting slightly negative at first glance because of the higher expectations that were built into the number. If you delve a little deeper you can see that there were a few items that are actually quite promising going forward. First, consumer spending is still remarkably strong given the current economic backdrop. Second, business inventories dropped for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2009. These two indicators actually give us hope that fourth quarter GDP may actually have a chance to be revised upwards.

Given the shortened holiday schedule this week, I expect the markets to continue to trade on light volume and also react to major headlines as they unfold.

Eric Marvin

Investment Advisor Representative Fort Myers, FL

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I It’s not Europe this Time!

Over the course of the last several months Monday mornings have proven to be quite stressful for financial markets across the globe. With Southern Europe in a seemingly constant state of turmoil we have become accustomed to waking up on a Monday and reacting to potential good or bad news over the weekend.

This morning is different because instead of being focused on Europe we are focused on the new congressional debt committee right here in the United States. This new “super committee” as some call it was born back in early August when the U.S. narrowly avoided causing a panic with how they handled their debt ceiling. The main objective of this committee is to find a way to reduce $1.2 trillion dollars in debt and do it in a way that spreads the reduction half between defense and non-defense spending with a few exceptions. This Wednesday is the deadline for the final vote, but in order to reach that deadline the debt committee is required to make any plan available 48 hours in advance.

All of this debate and political gridlock once again have caused the markets to become spooked. Remarkably this time the markets are not blaming anything on Europe, but the day is still young.

From Financial Planners Ft Myers

Eric Marvin,

Financial Planner Fort Myers, FL

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I Could the ECB lend money to the IMF?

Ft Myers Financial Planners

It seems like we have gotten to the point where the stability of the global financial markets for the day depends on whether or not the European Central Bank is buying bonds on the open market. When the central bank is buying the bonds the markets tends to look stronger. However, when they are not in there the markets seem to lose all confidence. This short-term buying of debt is clearly not a solution for the long-term, thus the urgent need to develop a credible plan that the markets will respect.

The latest proposed plan on the table has some leaders calling for the European Central Bank to lend money to the International Monetary Fund to streamline a process for countries in trouble to access funds. This of course is on the back end of a plan to leverage the EFSF, or European Financial Stability Fund that can’t seem to gain traction amongst all nations. If successful, this could be the catalyst that the world has been waiting for to stop the crisis from getting any worse.

I know I have been urging everyone to stay more connected to their financial professional, but in times like this it is truly essential. Never be afraid to ask a lot of questions in order to get the right answer.

From Financial Planners Ft Myers

Eric Marvin

Financial Planner in Fort Myers, FL

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I We Didn’t Forget you Rating Agencies!

Yesterday seemed like a fairly typical day on the surface for the global financial markets. Equities sold off in the morning, but then rallied back by afternoon. Then at about 3:00 P.M. or so the rating agency Fitch came out with a statement suggesting the European financial crisis could have a material impact on the banks in the United States. This seems like a forgone conclusion on the surface, but the markets once again reacted to the headline news and immediately sent stocks plummeting. We have to remember that we are living in a time where individuals and institutions sell first and ask questions later.

Ever since Standard & Poors downgraded the United States back in August the rating agencies have taken center stage again just as they did in 2008 and 2009. However, I believe that after completely missing the boat several years ago they do not want to make the same mistakes again. With this in mind, you can expect Fitch, S&P, and Moody’s to be in the news constantly trying to redeem some of their reputations.

These markets today are some of the hardest to navigate, so please try to stay in constant communication with your financial advisor.

Eric Marvin

Financial Planner in Fort Myers, FL

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I “Green Shoots”

With all of the negative news circling around in the media these days I thought this would be a great time to talk about potential “green shoots” that might be either currently present or be on the horizon. The first one quite possibly could be retail sales. I have been pleasantly surprised with the amount of spending that has taken place in the past year. People do tend to save a little more when times get tough, but retail sales have remained a nice surprise among all the European news.

Second, the jobless claims numbers are slowly becoming better and better. Granted, we have a long way to go with the weekly numbers coming in still around 400,000, but this was once a lot higher several months ago.

Third, the CPI numbers, which just came out this morning, are continuing to show that inflation is remaining in check. CPI stands for Consumer Price Index, which generally measures the change in the price level of consumer goods and services bought by households.

So, like today when the markets remain focused on Europe you can look back to these three potential “green shoots” for something positive to think about.

Eric Marvin- Financial Advisor in Fort Myers, FL

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I Another Day… More European Concerns

This morning is looking like another day that the financial markets will be driven by more European headlines. We did see a decent bond auction in Spain, however Italian bond yields crossed back above the pivotal seven percent mark. I hate to keep saying it, but I believe the markets are going to continue to react to the headline news overseas until they believe that fundamental change is underway. As of right now, the markets are viewing the German Bunds as the only safe haven in European Debt. It is their way of seemingly telling us that it only views one country out of the 17 total countries in the European Union as a conservative place to buy bonds.

Back at home we have seen a decent rebound in stocks after some fairly decent PPI and Retail Sales numbers. PPI of course stands for Producer Price Index, which measures the change in selling prices by various domestic producers. We will have to wait and see if all these economic reports and earnings releases can cause our U.S. markets to slowly decouple away from the European tail risk currently present.

Eric Marvin- Financial Advisor in Fort Myers, FL

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I Time to move Forward

Financial markets around the world will look to continue their positive momentum from last week on the back of new leadership being announced in Italy and Greece. The markets will not tolerate dissention any more in the weaker Southern European economies and will look for credible action plans going forward. The proposed referendum in Greece was enough to cause the bond market vigilantes to aggressively start pursuing Italy. In fact, we saw Italian ten year yields reach above six percent for the first time.

On top of all the European economic news we do have a good deal of companies reporting earnings this week as well as a slew of our own data coming out. If you are like me then you are tired of worrying about the constant economic fallout in the U.S. from our friends over in Europe. The time is now to act and restore faith in countries that have severe deficits in order to allow the global financial system some time to heal and move forward.

Remember, now is a perfect time to talk to a financial advisor or possibly look at replacing your existing one if you are not happy with the communication or guidance.

Eric Marvin

Financial Planner in Fort Myers, FL

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I New Leadership

This has certainly been an interesting couple of days for the stock market. This time last week Greece had the entire world on edge as the Papendreou government sought to hold a referendum to let the citizens express their thoughts on the recent bailout package. This obviously caught everybody by surprise and facing opposition both within and outside his governing coalition Prime Minister Papendreou called off the proposed referendum and stepped down from his leadership position. As I write this, Greece is in the process of swearing in a new Prime Minister to take over and try and unite a country at a time that desperately needs it.

As we head into the weekend the world now switches its focus on Italy with the hopes that they will follow in Greece’s footsteps and elect a new Prime Minister. The question yet to be answered is whether or not Greece and Italy will have what it takes to turn their struggling countries around and do it in a way that forces the markets to react.

One thing that remains clear is that we are living in a constantly changing and evolving world. With this in mind, never be afraid to ask a financial professional for help.

Eric Marvin- Financial AdvisorFort Myers, FL

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I Perception is Reality

Financial Advisor Ft Myers, Fl.

Eric M. Marvin

239-288-6542

Often times when enough people perceive something to be true or forthcoming it doesn’t even matter how legitimate it is or where the news came from. In this day and age where perception is reality it matters more how quickly your news can spread across the financial markets. An email from one trader to the next could cause stocks to rally or sell off. Right now many of the large financial firms in Europe and the United States seem to be reacting more negatively than positively to headlines regarding the status of the world economy. Remember, tides do tend to turn fairly fast, thus causing perception to change alongside.

Eric Marvin

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Financial Planners Ft Myers I Rumors, Rumors, and More Rumors

Financial Advisor Ft Myers, Fl.

Eric M. Marvin

239-288-6542

As volatility continues to swing out of control in both directions it is becoming seemingly harder and harder for the long-term investor to focus on their goals and objectives. Going forward, as this market continues to trade on rumors and headlines it will prove even more difficult to block out the noise of the day to day happenings. The best possible advice I can give is to talk with your financial professional as many times as it takes to feel comfortable about your portfolio and the market in general. You should never feel bad about picking up the phone and asking about your account. After all, it is your money and you should be more than entitled to take as much time of someone’s time as needed.

Remember, markets are being driven by rumors and headline risk right now. Be careful out there and never be afraid to consult your financial professional for their independent advice.

Eric Marvin

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