From Joseph Stango: My Take For A New Year

Reprinted with permission

Good Morning and welcome to 2021. A brand-new year brings new hope to the global community for both consumers and investors.

What a remarkable and unique year 2020 was. All three indices; The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the tech heavy NASDAQ all suffered a 30% decline or better at the beginning of the year. Then the Federal Reserve stepped in. With its actions of supporting markets with an injection of liquidity and its commitment to keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future the both stock and bond markets became addicted to a “Liquidity high” that has never been seen before. As a result, the Dow ended +7.25%, The S&P 500 was higher by 16.26% and the Nasdaq closed the year with a whopping 43.64%. Needless to say, it was quite a ride going from complete panic and despair to euphoriant optimism.

So what is in store for 2021. This may be the year of reckoning when Wall Street, which usually reflects Main Street economics, begin to see the a narrowing of the gap between equity prices and the fundamental of the companies that they represent. It I for this reason that I maintain my current stance regarding a quality portfolio of stocks that cater to the basic needs and not necessarily the whims of consumers. These sectors include areas of necessity such as Consumer Staples. Energy, Financials and Information Technology. It will be these types of sectors that will continue to whether the storms of volatility in both fundamentals of corporations such as strong balance sheets and cash flow and the values of the stocks that represent these companies.

If there is a word that may describe our future events that word would be “dispersion.” In the economic sense this would mean, as Mohamed A El-Erian a highly respected Economist explains, “different countries doing very different things to an extent that we haven’t seen before in a recovering global economy.” He goes on to explain that we may see nations’ economies recovering in the shapes of L’s, U’s and V’s. He defines these as: “L’s are countries that will stabilize but have enormous difficulty recovering quickly. U’s are those that will stabilize with a clear path to recovery and V’s are those who will recover quickly.

No matter your political and economic opinion one this is certain, we still have a long road of recovery ahead of us. While we may not experience the volatility we have this past year we may continue to experience it on some level.

For those of you who are clients, over the course of the next few weeks I will be sending to you in hard copy form, a summary of your performance in d2020. Given all that has happened in the markets I hope you will be quite please with your results. Should you have questions, even if you’re not a client, please feel free to call me on my cell at 203-982-8210 at any time. I will be happy to discuss any topic you wish.

I will be on the air today at 10:20 AM to discuss further the road to the future of 2021 with Talk of the Town host Steve Noxon. I hope you will join the conversation at www.watr.com.

I wish you a very happy and healthy new year. May we all see an improvement in our physical and economic health.

Sincerest Regards,
Joe

P.S. Are you ready to make the first step towards financial confidence? Take the 3-Minute Confident Retirement® check and share your results with me today.

Joseph J. Stango
Vice President - Financial Advisor
Centurion Wealth Management
A private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

430 Highland Ave
Cheshire, CT 06410

O: 203.823.9114 x 311 | F: 203.439.2766
C: 203.982.8210

37 Broadway
North Haven, CT 06473

Support staff contact information is available on my website

Visit my team website

Associate with an Ameriprise Financial franchise. Products from RiverSource and Columbia Threadneedle Investments are offered by affiliates of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. Investment advisory products and services are made available through Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., a registered investment adviser. Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC.