Is 2024 the Year of Surprising Market Resilience?

March 25, 2024 | Season 6, #11

Navigate the surprising twists and turns of the financial markets with us as the bulls took charge in the first quarter of 2024, defying gloomy predictions. We'll equip you with insights on the Federal Reserve's strategic maneuvers hinting at rate cuts and their widespread ramifications for your investments. Likewise, the conversation wades into the complex waters of managing healthcare costs and Medicare, a crucial conversation for our aging population that could have significant repercussions on your financial health.

Discover how the stock market is being sculpted by international politics and tech transitions, with Brad's expert analysis on fixed income markets lighting our way. We'll scrutinize the pulse of global finance, from China's tech shakeup to Senator Rubio's potential VP run, all while keeping an eye on the commodities that promise to shine. Our discourse weaves through the market's expectations, filtered through the lens of AI advancements and future earnings, setting the stage for a potentially prosperous Q2.

To cap off our journey, we'll dissect the perplexing decision between Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare, unfolding the trade-offs essential for informed financial planning. The bond market isn't left behind, with a special focus on municipal bond strategies as we prepare for the months ahead. Remember, these discussions are not just fleeting opinions but a mosaic of strategies to guide you through the fluctuating tides of the market, ensuring that you make the most informed decisions aligned with your investment goals. Keep in mind, every twist in the market narrative is another step in your financial expedition.

** For informational and educational purposes only, not intended as investment advice. Views and opinions are subject to change without notice.

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Transcript

Alan Eppers: 0:00

And now introducing Mr Keith Lanton.

Keith Lanton: 0:04

Hi, good morning. Today is Monday, march 25th, last week of the first quarter of 2024, so we're almost a quarter away through the year already and it's been a very good year. If you're an investor in equity markets and we're going to talk about financial markets what's happened so far this year, what to think about as the year progresses, whether or not we will see a sustenance of the rally that has taken us by surprise Most market prognosticators. We're not predicting a super bullish market heading into 2024. Markets were expecting rate cuts at least three. Some were expecting as many as six rate cuts. Federal Reserve met last week. We'll talk about the Fed, what they did, what it means for the markets, how this market mentality has shifted as the year has gone on and what that may mean for us and our portfolios going forward. So this morning I'm going to start out with a few different quotes. Then talk about the Fed, their actions, financial markets and how we can think about at least the second quarter of 2024 as this quarter comes to an end. And then we'll talk about the news of the morning and what Barron's had to say, somewhat optimistic, about the sustenance of this rally. And then we'll talk a little bit about medical expenses and Medicare, especially as so much of the US population is getting older, and how we can set ourselves up for our medical expenses in retirement or at least our golden years, if we choose to continue to work. And then we'll turn things over to Brad to give us some more insights into the market, especially fixed income markets, which, as we talk about so often, are really the oil of the financial machine that help the gears grind. So the decisions that get made that influence the fixed income market and interest rates have a lot of influence on all asset classes, as they really are the lubricant of markets and can help move money and create or not create opportunities, both in fixed income markets as well as the substitution effect and the influence that they have in other markets, both from a substitution factor in terms of which asset classes we should be invested in, as well as interest rates, obviously affecting the cost of other assets, like extracting commodities and the cost of financing companies and therefore the impact on their equity prices. So this morning, get us started.

Keith Lanton: 3:09

Some words of wisdom, some quotes that are put out by words of wisdom and just give us some food for thought, so to speak. This morning, brian Tracy said the quickest way to succeed is to start now and figure it out as you go. Another quote with a similar theme and that theme here is on a Monday morning is we can all sit back and think about all the things that we need to do in order to put our foot forward. To step forward, we need to get everything perfect. Everything's got to be aligned, everything's got to be in sync. We've got to have thought things through so thoroughly, and if we do that, we probably never will act. And that's why the next quote I'll share from you is from Simon Sinek, who said it doesn't matter when we start. It doesn't matter where we start. All that matters is that we start. So if you're hesitant to get started, jump in. Yes, it won't be perfect, yes, you'll make some mistakes, but you'll figure it out as you go. If you wait to get it to 100% perfection, you'll probably see that by the time you get started and a lot of your competition is already halfway down the proverbial track.

Keith Lanton: 4:20

John Southerd said the only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you. And then, uh, the tennis player Maria Shriver said at some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening. And, uh, in a similar thought process, uh, oprah Winfrey said, the happiest people don't have the best of everything. They make the best of everything. So, thinking about financial markets and how to invest now that the markets have moved up so much, and what to do, which is always something that we are struggling with as investors, think of financial markets and the psychology of markets as a microcosm of human psychology, because all markets are as a collection of all the individual emotions of the individual investors, of the participants in the market, and the financial markets are just one big microcosm of human psychology, and human happiness is derived not from how well we are doing, but how we are doing relative to our expectations. And the financial markets work the same way. Things could be great.

Keith Lanton: 5:32

But if we expect talking to friends online or in person even and perhaps the conversation will come around to a movie that was recently released and we will hear from a whole group of folks that this movie was excellent, fantastic, the acting was terrific, the plot was spellbinding and you really should go and see this movie, that it was truly fabulous. But going into this movie, therefore, our expectations are what? They are? Super high and we are expecting to see one of the greatest movies we've ever seen, if not the best one ever. And all too often, when we have this experience and we go into the theater or, more often, today, we watch it on our streaming service in the comfort of our home entertainment system we are often disappointed, not because it wasn't a good movie, but because it wasn't a good movie relative to what we were expecting. Conversely, if we are told that a movie was disappointing it was perhaps at times boring, it wasn't as action-filled as we would have expected and then, for whatever reason, we stumble upon it and we watch it anyway, we are often pleasantly surprised. Our feeling is hey, that movie was pretty good. In fact, it was good because when we went into it, we were expecting something low. It was better than expected and we came away with a better feeling than we thought we would.

Keith Lanton: 7:20

And current financial strength that we are seeing in the markets can be attributed to the collective mindset of market participants believing that entering 2024, that the US economy would slow year was how much of a kick or how much of a wind at our backs would the Federal Reserve be supplying with future monetary policy being easy and anticipation of rate cuts In fact coming into this year. If you were watching the television networks like CNBC and Fox Business News, they weren't laser focused on earnings growth. They weren't laser focused on artificial intelligence. Just six months ago they were laser focused on talking to us and having us wait with bated breath on every word that was coming out of the Federal Reserve. Were they going to cut rates? How low were they going to cut rates? When were they going to cut rates Just a little while ago? This is what we as market participants were so concentrating on.

Keith Lanton: 8:27

However, as the year has gone on, the narrative has changed. Why? Because, again, relative to expectations, the economy has surprised us with its resilience. The economy has surprised us with its earnings and expectations. Relative to expectations, earnings have been coming in higher than we expected. We are feeling better because we had lower expectations that we were experiencing. Normally, humans would think that's great when we see the Federal Reserve acting in a way that we thought that they would act and yet they act more strongly. But here in this environment, we are getting something that we didn't expect, that is, stronger earnings than we were expecting, and therefore we are seeing an economy that is exceeding our expectations and therefore we are seeing a stock market that has driven us higher.

Keith Lanton: 9:26

The market has focused on a reason to be optimistic going forward, and that is artificial intelligence. So not only is the market now focused on the fact that we've had better earnings, but the market has something to look forward to in the future, and that is the benefits of artificial intelligence, an investment in artificial intelligence. The current mindset goes will power next quarter's earnings and the productivity gains will power earnings for the foreseeable future. The market, therefore, has now done a rare pivot. It has pivoted from focusing on what the Federal Reserve is going to do to focusing on earnings and, most importantly, focusing on on earnings and, most importantly, focusing on future earnings, and those future earnings are tied to. At the moment, the mindset goes to artificial intelligence. So the market is now focused on growth, and perhaps what's even better is if the Federal Reserve will still provide support for interest rate cuts or for a continuing lower cost of money. So we have a future. Perhaps that is even brighter than we expected going into this year, because we've got earnings that exceeded expectations. We've got hopes of future earnings being better than expected because of artificial intelligence. And yet we still have the hope that the Federal Reserve will continue to provide support by continuing to cut interest rates perhaps not as much as we previously thought they would cut, but nevertheless not being a headwind by holding rates or raising rates, but by being a tailwind, by continuing to offer support to the markets, by giving us something better than we currently have and be able to provide us with rates that are lower, and therefore the markets can enjoy not only future growth because of the growth that we're seeing, but because that growth is now sustainable because of AI and because of Fed rate cuts, and this, perhaps, is the greatest explanation of why markets have moved higher, and some are saying why markets may continue to move higher.

Keith Lanton: 11:24

Now, the billion dollar question is well, how much good news has been priced into these expectations? How much of what I am talking about and what I am saying right now is built into expectations, and therefore, what does the future have to deliver in order to sustain this market? That is the billion-dollar question. That is the question that none of us have the answer to, but that is what we have to decipher and decide every day as we get more news. Is this news better than expected or worse than expected? It's not. Is this news good or bad? It's. Is this news better than we had anticipated?

Keith Lanton: 12:00

Earnings and Fed decisions relative to our expectations and, of course, tied to those earnings, is what is the biggest driver of those earnings, and that's artificial intelligence. So, for the time being, unless there's another pivot market's going to focus on, well, will AI deliver those future earnings? Because that's where their expectation of the leverage in terms of those earnings is going to come from, until a new narrative emerges. So let's see where we are this morning. Right now, we are seeing futures somewhat to the downside as we are getting a little bit of consolidation following last week's gains. S&p futures down 18 points, nasdaq futures down about 100 below fair value and the Dow is down about 100 points as well, as the Dow is closing in on 40,000 but just falling slightly shy of that at the moment. This is normal, perhaps after another winning week from the major indices, treasury yields moving higher. Citing another headwind for equities Two-year note is up three basis points to 463. Ten-year up two basis points to 424.

Keith Lanton: 13:09

There is no notable US economic data out today. Biggest news of the day is that AMD and Intel and Microsoft in the news as China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel and AMD from government personal computers and servers. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft's window operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options. The report said Government agencies above the township level have been told to include criteria requiring quote safe and reliable unquote processes and operating systems when making purchases, and this is weighing on NASDAQ this morning. Other companies in the news this morning Boeing is up about 2% after the company announced that the CEO, david Calhoun, was stepping down at the end of the year. Board Chairman Larry Kellner is also resigning. Mossimo, the medical technology company, is up about 10% this morning after announcing on late Friday it's considering a spinoff of its consumer business unit.

Keith Lanton: 14:19

Cleveland Cliffs. The steel producer, is up about 2% this morning after announcing it won award negotiations for funding from the Department of Energy. Baidu is up about 1.4% after reporting it's in talks with Apple for a potential collaboration on artificial intelligence services in China. Apple, by the way, is down about half a percent this morning. Disney, up over 1% after Barclays upgraded it to overweight from equal weight. Foot Locker up 3%, getting an upgrade from Evercore, electric vehicle makers. Tesla and Rivian, down this morning, follow a downgrade to neutral from Mizuho Securities and Scott's Miracle-Gro, the lawn care company, down about 2% following a downgrade from Raymond James Digital World Acquisition Corp. Dwac, up about 6% this morning after stockholders confirmed the approving the proposed merger with Donald Trump's Media and Technology Group company. The SPAC. Digital World Acquisition Corp is expected to change its symbol to Donald Trump's initials, djt, now that this merger has been approved.

Keith Lanton: 15:34

Other news this morning if you're looking at markets overseas in Asia, week began on a mostly lower note. India's market was closed for a holiday and the European market's basically flat overseas in Europe, a relatively quiet start to the week in Europe. Other news this morning Atlanta Fed President Fostek, who is a FOMC voting member, said he expects only one rate reduction this year, according to Reuters. New York Times reporting that the Islamic State is claiming responsibility for the attacks that took place in Moscow at a Russian concert hall that killed over 100 people. Russian President Putin has vowed to punish those responsible. Politico reporting that Treasury Secretary Yellen will travel to China next month. Senate passed six remaining funding bills to fund the entire government, so if you're marking your calendars, funding is good through September 30th. Nbc News is reporting that Senator Rubio is being considered as Donald Trump's vice presidential selection. Mr Rubio said it would be an honor to serve in that position.

Keith Lanton: 16:52

Commodities, saying that commodities will benefit from 2024 rate cuts, which they say will help support industrial and consumer demand. Raw materials, they say, may return 15% over 2024, they say, to focus on copper, aluminum, gold and oil. And also stress for the need for investors to be selective, as commodity gains are not expected to be universal. Looking forward to what's coming out this week Tomorrow, the Census Bureau releasing the durable goods orders for February. I'm expecting those to increase 1% month over month.

Keith Lanton: 17:32

Thursday, the Institute for Supply Management releases the Chicago Business Barometer for March. We're looking for that to come in at 45.7, about two points more than in February. And then Friday, financial markets are closed for Good Friday, but Friday is nevertheless going to perhaps drive the following week because we are getting some important economic news as well as some potentially important commentary. On Friday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis releases the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index for February. This is an inflation gauge that the Fed pays a lot of attention to. Consensus calls for a 2.5% year-over-year increase, one-tenth of a percentage more than January, core PCE, which excludes volatile food and energy, is expected to rise 2.8%, matching the January data.

Keith Lanton: 18:27

Also on Friday, fed Chair Powell makes remarks at the San Francisco Fed's Monetary Policy Conference, while other US events of the week include this week include, new home sales for February. That does come out later today. So one data point usually not superly carefully watched. So this week Good Friday interesting in that we do get some important commentary and news. Usually on days markets are not open, news flow is nonexistent, so this year a little bit different. And then, of course, sunday is Easter, wishing everybody a happy holiday.

Keith Lanton: 19:11

So moving on to Barron's, barron's remaining optimistic that the markets can continue to move higher. In the up and down column of the magazine, barron said the everything rally rolls on. Thank you, central banks. Dow Jones is knocking on another big number 40,000, but it's just one of many records that are being set, as the Dow did set records last week, although not quite making it to that 40,000. But Megatech stocks have powered the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow and the NASDAQ to records it's not unique to here in the US.

Keith Lanton: 19:58

We're seeing records in South Korea's KOSPI. Even the European Stocks 600 Index is making records and Japan's Nikkei 225. What a wonderful world indeed, and thanks should also go to the World Central Bank, led by the US Federal Reserve, which have all but green-lighted lower policy interest rates in coming months, in the expectation that inflation will continue to make downward progress without triggering recessions. The Fed's counterparts at the European Central Bank and the Bank of England similarly signaled lower rates ahead, while the Swiss National Bank made a surprise rate cut last week. Although the Bank of Japan finally exited negative interest rates, monetary policy and conditions there remain lax, with zero rates and a weak yen. Meanwhile, major Latin American banks, led by Brazil and Mexico, are also well along in their rate cuts, having been much prompter in raising their rates to fight inflation starting in 2021. So they were earlier in raising rates and have now been quicker in lowering rates.

Keith Lanton: 21:04

Last week, as expected, the summary of economic projections that came out of the meeting from the Federal Open Market Committee confirmed that monetary authorities continue to look for three one-quarter percentage point reductions in their federal funds target by year-end, from the current range of five and a quarter to five and a half percent. That was the same projection as in December. It was also in line with future market forecasts, which have come into line with the Fed's thinking. Earlier in the year, markets were expecting six or seven rate cuts. Now they're expecting three. June seems like the most likely time for the initial reduction and currently there's a 75% probability in markets that the rate cuts will start in June.

Keith Lanton: 21:48

In markets that the rate cuts will start in June, the trader column in Barron's said big tech stocks are back and optimistically they say that they meaning big tech stocks can carry the market even higher. Last week NASDAQ was up 2.3%. I'm sure the Federal Reserve helped give technology stocks an additional jolt. The central banks held rates steady but elected not to change that forecast, as we just mentioned, for three rate cuts, despite stronger than expected inflation readings in January and February. But investors remained last week just as excited, not just just about the Fed, but about artificial intelligence.

Keith Lanton: 22:30

Nvidia, at its AI conference last week announced this new Blackwell chip which could sell for as much as $40,000, while Micron Technologies' fiscal second quarter revenue benefited from its emerging AI business as both its top and bottom lines beat estimates. Broadcom, which is also riding the AI wave, announced a new customer thought to be bite-dang and a sign that investors are looking to buy each minor dip. A major vote of confidence for stocks and, in particular, for these AI stocks. If you look at the action last week in N, it dropped down earlier in the week to $8.50, but by week's end it had rebounded to $930 per share. This is demonstrative of the fact that these momentum stocks continue to have momentum and if you look at the trends, they have consistently risen in the past several months without experiencing high volatility, which is a sign that, at least based on historical patterns, that this market strength potentially can persist. Those who are following these AI stocks and technology stocks in general point out that there is so much fear of missing out that, basically, on every dip, those who have not deployed all their capital are using that as an opportunity to catch up, so to speak, and therefore the thought process is that there is still maybe some gasoline left in the tank for these tech stocks. Of course, time will tell. We'll see.

Keith Lanton: 24:06

Not everybody's pouring their money into tech stocks, though Barron's pointing out that many money managers are suggesting that perhaps the US market is hot, perhaps too hot. Certainly they are participating here in the US, but they are also increasing their flow of funds into European markets. While the S&P has risen 26% since October, the European Stocks 600 Index has not gone up nearly the same amount and therefore it continues to lag the performance of the US. In fact, the European Stocks 600 trades at 13.8 times forward earnings, an unusually large 33% discount to the S&P 500. So fund managers, barons, have been boosting the share of their portfolios devoted to stocks in the Eurozone. They did so even more in March, relative to February, than any other asset class in the world. That's according to Bank of America and their statistics world. That's according to Bank of America and their statistics, speaking of the one technology stock that has lagged this year, as the Department of Justice is bearing down on them at the same time that China is making it more difficult for them to do business in their country, and that is Apple.

Keith Lanton: 25:22

But Evercore in a research report last week, at least on the lawsuit front, said that they feel that Apple will prevail. They came out and reiterated their outperform rating on Apple, saying the Department of Justice has filed its long-pillograph suit against Apple and it will doubtless be a long process that will produce negative headlines, so we think Apple will prevail in the end. The DOJ has been aggressive in pursuing antitrust suits against big tech, although it's had limited success. And they go on to suggest and I think their thinking is at least logical and perhaps sound. We continue to think that any meaningful antitrust action against Apple in the US will require new legislation from Congress, as existing laws make it very difficult to argue that Apple operates as a monopoly using market definitions or consumer harm standards. If you go back to the lawsuit that Apple recently faced from Epic Games that attacked Apple from similar angles, that lawsuit was struck down because the judge would not define the Apple operating system as a single market. Similarly, apple does not have a monopoly on the broader smartphone or digital gaming markets. The Department of Justice case is broader but will still ultimately hinge on defining market, and that means is the market for Apple's operating system the entire market or are we talking about the market for smartphones in its entirety? And if we're talking about the market for smartphones in its entirety, it will be challenging to produce evidence showing that Apple's actions directly harmed competition and consumers. This legal process is likely to go on for two to three years and then there will likely be an appeals process. You can expect this thing to drag on perhaps for up to five years, and Evercore is suggesting that they continue to view antitrust as more of a headline risk than a financial risk. Unless we see new legislation passed and it's unlikely they say that Apple will be forced to meaningfully change its App Store fee or third-party app store policy.

Keith Lanton: 27:29

Finally, before I turn things over to Brad, I'm going to just talk briefly about Medicare and the cost of medical insurance. Once you go on Medicare, if you choose to participate in Medicare, as almost every person who turns 65 plus that doesn't have private insurance chooses to do then usually you take out either a Medicare Advantage plan or a Medigap plan. And what's happened here in 2024 is that the folks providing Medicare Advantage, humana being the biggest, are seeing their costs increase significantly. Their stocks have been under lots of pressure as lots of folks are going back to doctors following COVID, getting that follow-up treatment, getting those elective procedures done, and this is weighing on the cost of providing this supplemental insurance to seniors who are participating in Medicare and Medigap through Medicare. And this is somewhat also due to the rising cost of providing all sorts of services like medical services. So the cost of the medical staff has increased, the cost of the equipment has increased and the number of patients seeking care has increased and therefore we're seeing margins get squeezed in the Medicare Advantage space.

Keith Lanton: 29:01

The way Medicare Advantage works is the insurance companies take on responsibility for all the costs of a consumer. In return, they provide Medicare with a lump sum payment for each participant that they assume responsibility for. So if you sign up for Medicare Advantage, what happens is Medicare the government pays a fixed amount to the insurance company. The insurance company now assumes all liability for all the future expenses that you will incur. So what happens when these companies start to receive less money than they're taking in for your care? Well, they're locked in at the present, but going forward, being that they are for-profit businesses, it means that very likely, if you're on a Medicare Advantage plan, that you're going to see a lot of pressure from these companies to approach the government and raise the prices for this Medicare Advantage service that you're receiving. Or, conversely, medicare Advantage may include less services or watered-down access to the medical system. So if you're on Medicare Advantage, or you may be going on Medicare Advantage if you are approaching retirement, you may want to think twice about exactly how you want to utilize Medicare services.

Keith Lanton: 30:22

Once you choose Medicare Advantage, while you technically could switch and perhaps move back to what's called a Medigap plan. You have to be in good health because the underwriters of the insurance companies do not have to take you into their plan. They must take you into their plan when you enroll in Medicare. But once you're enrolled in Medicare, there is no mandatory requirement to require that if you wish to switch that you can be accepted into a new arrangement. Therefore, when you enter the Medicare world, you have to be very mindful of which decision or choice you make.

Keith Lanton: 30:59

Whether it's Medicare Advantage, traditional Medicare, which requires you to have a lot of potential payments on your own, or if you take out a Medigap plan, which is typically using traditional Medicare and taking out supplemental insurance to cover those excess costs, that decision process has just gotten more complicated. As Medicare Advantage, which is a choice that over 50% of consumers are now making, because it was previously the least expensive choice and did offer, by many measures, a quote-unquote, you know good value for the cost for many participants. But that value proposition may be challenged now that these costs are rising and everybody who's participating may need to reconsider. This is critically important for not just those who are approaching retirement but those in retirement, but important for all of us as Americans, because Medicare and the cost of providing health insurance is one of the greatest participants to our budget deficit and one of the greatest costs to financing our debt. So this is an issue that affects us all. With that, I'm going to turn things over to Brad to give us some more insights into the market. Good morning, brad.

Brad Harris: 32:23

Good morning Keith. Thank you, good morning everyone. To summarize the month, we started the month on March 1st with a 10-year yield at 4.2% and we go into the last week of the month today, march 25th, with the 10-year yield sitting at you guessed it 4.2%. Well, 4.22% to be exact. So eventually, a lot of action over the month, but we really didn't have any move, if you're just someone who looks at your portfolio once a month. So for buy and hold investors, this was a quite comfortable month and I believe that is what most of you appreciate. As a trader, though, things weren't that calm. Week one was a big rally, going from 4.2% to 4.08%. Week two was a major correction from 4.08% up to 4.3%. Week three, a big rally again. That was last week back to where we started 4.2%. So, as I've been saying for quite some time now, welcome to the bond market, the world's largest casino. A lot of action, not always a lot of movement. At the end of the day, I have a feeling that we're going to continue to have action like this, but essentially we're staying within this trading range on the 10-year of 4.1% to 4.35%. It's going to take a major financial, geopolitical or Fed event to pull us out of this range. So as an investor, your values shouldn't move much, but for the traders, the action is erratic and overwhelming.

Brad Harris: 33:53

In this post, the story of the month has been supply. This month we will have seen over $90 billion of long-term municipals issued, which I think puts this month in the top five of issuance over the last decade. Because of this, the bulk of the action has been in the primary market and not the secondary market. With so much supply, a trader wants to be careful to make sure that the market can digest all the supply that's coming in and treasuries become an imperfect hedge as the two markets can trade on a complete different trajectory. Municipals out to 10 years still remain fully priced, 11 to 17 years, in my opinion fairly priced, and 18 years out more attractive. But municipals are trading in two different time zones here. The primary new issue market is aggressively priced and the secondary market remains more fair, especially when looking at short and intermediate maturities. There will continue to be a lot of bonds being called from some of these new issues which are being issued as refunding deals. So let's please use the secondary market to roll over those bonds for those who would like to roll their bonds back into the municipals.

Brad Harris: 35:04

I want to wish everyone who celebrates a happy Easter. The Walmart closes early on Thursday and will be closed on Friday for Good Friday. Personally, I will be away this Thursday and getting back on Tuesday, april 2nd. I'm expecting a relatively quiet holiday, short and weak for most of us, and try to drown out the noise of the wild short-term intraday moves if you're a long-term investor. I hope everyone has a great week and again to those celebrating, a great holiday, thanks. I'll turn it back to Keith.

Alan Eppers: 35:35

Thank you for listening to Mr Keith Lanton. This podcast is available on most platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Pandora. For more information, please visit our website at www. heraldlantern. com.

Sophie Cohen: 35:53

Opinions expressed herein are subject to change and not necessarily the opinion of the firm. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The information presented herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide personal investment advice. It is important that you consider your tolerance for risk and investment goals when making investment decisions. Investing in securities does involve risk and the potential of losing money. The material does not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations.