November was an eventful month for investors as the S&P 500 moved higher, finishing the month up almost 6%, and is now up roughly 26.5% for the year. (YCharts) The biggest market mover was the US election, while we also had a busy month of positive corporate earnings, and a Fed rate decision (0.25% rate cut).

Post election, we made adjustments to portfolios to try to take advantage of areas that we feel may have sustained tailwinds given the likely policies from a Trump administration and Republican Congress.  Below we’ve highlighted a few areas of the market we like moving forward.

• Financials: we think that there may be meaningful tailwinds for the financial sector as we would expect to see benefits from regulatory relief, a friendlier antitrust environment, and a likely steeper yield curve.
• Technology: We believe that we may see a prolonged tailwind in this sector as we think it’s likely that we see a continuation of friendlier corporate tax policies, including toward stock buybacks.  (tech tends to be a high stock buyback sector).
• Mid Cap Stocks: we also continue to like mid-cap stocks, as these companies look attractive from a valuation perspective and tend to be more domestic focused.  As such, they are potentially positioned to benefit from possible tariff policy and the Trump administration’s approach to trade.

We continue to watch the current economic and market environment closely.  Our base case continues to be that the economy avoids a meaningful recession, corporate earnings remain resilient, the Fed continues to ease, and stocks move moderately higher. Our active approach means that we’ll be ready to make adjustments to our portfolio positioning as economic data evolves and as we evaluate the potential policy impacts from the election

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions and feel free to pass this email along to any friends, family, or colleagues that you feel would benefit.

Sincerely,

Your Team at TLWM

* Investment advice offered through TLWM, LLC., a registered investment advisor.

* The Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged group of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general. You cannot invest directly in this index.

* The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged index. Unmanaged index returns do not reflect fees, expenses, or sales charges. Index performance is not indicative of the performance of any investment.

* The 10-year Treasury Note represents debt owed by the United States Treasury to the public. Since the U.S. Government is seen as a risk-free borrower, investors use the 10-year Treasury Note as a benchmark for the long-term bond market.

* Government bonds and Treasury Bills are guaranteed by the U.S. government as to the timely payment of principal and interest and, if held to maturity, offer a fixed rate of return and fixed principal value. However, the value of fund shares is not guaranteed and will fluctuate.

* Corporate bonds are considered higher risk than government bonds but normally offer a higher yield and are subject to market, interest rate and credit risk as well as additional risks based on the quality of issuer coupon rate, price, yield, maturity, and redemption features.

*Credit risk can be a factor in situations where an investment’s performance relies on a borrower’s repayment of borrowed funds. With credit risk, an investor can experience a loss or unfavorable performance if a borrower does not repay the borrowed funds as expected or required. Investment holdings that involve forms of indebtedness (i.e. borrowed funds) are subject to credit risk.

* Typically, the values of fixed-income securities change inversely with prevailing interest rates. Therefore, a fundamental risk of fixed-income securities is interest rate risk, which is the risk that their value will generally decline as prevailing interest rates rise, which may cause your account value to likewise decrease, and vice versa. How specific fixed income securities may react to changes in interest rates will depend on the specific characteristics of each security. Fixed-income securities are also subject to credit risk, prepayment risk, valuation risk, and liquidity risk. Credit risk is the chance that a bond issuer will fail to pay interest and principal in a timely manner, or that negative perceptions of the issuer’s ability to make such payments will cause the price of a bond to decline.

* Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice and are not intended as investment advice or to predict future performance.

* Economic forecasts set forth may not develop as predicted and there can be no guarantee that strategies promoted will be successful.

* Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing involves risk, including loss of principal.

* You cannot invest directly in an index.

* Consult your financial professional before making any investment decision.

* Stock investing involves risk including loss of principal.

* This document is solely for informational purposes. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where TLWM Financial and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure.

* No strategy ensures a profit or protects against a loss.