 Dear Clients and Friends, What a great beginning to the new year! We are excited to share with you our new expanded newsletter, which will still include the Quarterly Update you are used to seeing but will now also include other exciting StraightLine news and updates. We recently launched a new website, which we hope you are enjoying, with its focus on improving your digital experience through technology. The site has streamlined navigation, comprehensive information, and interactive features. We have also just launched a new and exciting financial planning tool from MoneyGuide along with other upcoming exciting tools to be announced soon. You’ll read more about all of that below in the Q4 2023 Update. Michael Bisaro, AIF® President and CEO From your Investment Strategy Team:
2023 was the best terrible year in recent history. While sentiment remained depressed throughout the year, markets ignored the noise and went on a year-end run that rivals anything we have seen in the last decade. Overall, the year provided many important lessons in investing, with clear examples of why timing markets and letting emotions dictate decisions is rarely a good idea. In the short term, we remain cautiously optimistic about the prospects for 2024, even as we expect somewhat choppy returns. In the long term, many of the macro themes we have previously hit on (innovation, uncertain geopolitics, aging demographics, and higher inflation) remain in play and could once again impact markets. It was a mostly good week for markets, with US small-cap stocks the lone outlier to the downside. The increase in the S&P 500 came as Q4 earnings announcements continue to look generally good. The big news on the week was a blowout January jobs report, which saw 353k jobs added versus expectations of 168k. Adding to the good news was an upward revision of 126k jobs in the prior two months.
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