Weekly Commentary for the week of March 5, 2018

The Markets

 Investors already on edge over potential interest rate hikes became more anxious this week after President Trump announced plans to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports. Although the S&P 500 gained Friday, the three major indexes closed their worst week of losses since early February. For the week, the Dow fell 2.97 percent to close at 24,538.06. The S&P lost 1.98 percent to finish at 2,691.25, and the NASDAQ dropped 1.12 percent to end the week at 7,257.87.

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.

Loyalty? — Two out of three millennials (66 percent) expect to change jobs within the next five years. Millennials were born between 1981-97 and are age 21-37 in 2018 (source: 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey, BTN Research).

Fewer Choices — There were 1.48 million existing homes for sale in the United States as of Dec. 31, 2017, a drop of 460,000 over the previous six months. The 1.48 million for-sale figure is the lowest number reported in history for a statistic that has been tracked since 1999 (source: National Association of Realtors, BTN Research).

Charity — PGA golf tournaments held in 2017 donated $180 million to local charities, bringing the total raised since 1938 to $2.65 billion. Five of the tournaments in 2017 raised more than $10 million each (source: PGA, BTN Research).

* 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 March 2018. All rights reserved. Securities offered through Securities America, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. SAI#2047190.1