Welcome to the August edition of The Broadcast!
Hello fellow Broadcasters! As Labor Day weekend and the unofficial end of summer fast approach, I send greetings from San Francisco - where in true City by the Bay nature, we still await for our summer to arrive! Regardless, I hope everyone has a final chance to recharge and enjoy some time off over the long weekend - I know I will!
This month's newsletter will be short and sweet. First, a quick reminder about the Schwab transition and then a debrief on what happened in August. Without further ado...
Schwab Transition:
As you are hopefully well aware by now (having received various pieces of mail/emails) TD Ameritrade's transition to Schwab will conclude over the holiday weekend.
What does that mean for you?
- Beginning Friday, September 1st at 5:30pm PST you will no longer be able to view your accounts on the TD website.
- Starting Tuesday, September 5th you will be able to view your accounts on Schwab's website.
- If you have existing Schwab login credentials, your old TD accounts will automatically populate under your existing Schwab username and password.
- If you don't have existing Schwab login credentials, you'll need to register and establish a username and password here.
If you need any assistance, I will have access to your new Schwab account information beginning Tuesday, September 5th so please don't hesitate to reach out.
As an aside, I am hopeful that the transition to Schwab will be positive for us all. Schwab has a large infrastructure and support staff, both should be beneficial to us. Of course, if any of you have any feedback once the transitions commences please let me know!
August...
Despite a late rally, index returns all posted negative returns for the month of August but still remain firmly positive for the year.
Developed international stocks (MSCI EAFE - EFA) have cooled after a hot start to the year.
China and its assorted economic problems continue to weigh heavily on the emerging markets (FTSE Emerging Markets - VWO).
Small Cap stocks (Russell 2000 - RTY) also had a rough month, though is still the highest performing index over the past three months (+9.75% over that period.)
Even the high flying mega tech stocks of the Nasdaq Composite (CCMP) and Nasdaq 100 (NDX) were down slightly for the month.
August 2023 Index Returns
and Everything After...
(Not So) Fun Fact: September is historically a tough month for market returns. Dating back to 1928, September has posted an average monthly decline of just over 1%.
Historically, this data may make sense as Americans vacationed during the summer and got back to business in September. While I tend to take data like this with a grain of salt (business conducted in 1928 was much different than in 1988, let alone 2023), I also know that even in positive years stocks can have negative returns during a given month (or more.)
On the brightside, there was a plethora of jobs data released this morning, September 1st (spoiler alert - it was mostly positive for the markets) and inflation still seems to be slowing. Investors are feeling confident that our friends at the Fed will skip another interest rate hike in September and possibly through the year.
Finally, September will mark the end of the third quarter and October will be the start of earnings season which should paint a clearer picture of how the year will wrap up.
Wishing you all a wonderful (and hopefully) long holiday weekend!
Steve