DAILY UPDATE: Ikea & Fidelity Investments with SPX Bank at New High

Posted on October 12, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

MEDICAL EXECUTIVE-POST – TODAY’S NEWSLETTER BRIEFING

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Essays, Opinions and Curated News in Health Economics, Investing, Business, Management and Financial Planning for Physician Entrepreneurs and their Savvy Advisors and Consultants

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Ikea’s revenue fell for the first time in four years after it lowered prices to spark an increase in orders.

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Stocks up

Stocks down

  • Stellantis continued to tumble today, falling another 2.22% after the carmaker announced its CEO will step down in early 2026.
  • A.O. Smith probably doesn’t ring a bell, but there’s a good chance they made the water heater in your basement. Unfortunately, they’re not selling too many these days, and shares sank 6.25% after the company cut its full-year outlook.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/2h47urt5

Here’s where the major benchmarks ended:

  • The SPX rose 34.98 points (0.61%) to 5,815.03 to end the week up 1.11%; the $DJI added 409.74 points (0.97%) to 42,863.86 to end the week up 1.21%; and the $COMP gained 60.88 points (0.33%) to 18,342.94 to end the week up 1.13%.
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) fell two basis points to 4.07% but rose nine basis points this week.
  • The CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX) slipped to 20.41, still up slightly for the week.

CITE: https://tinyurl.com/tj8smmes

Fidelity Investments has notified 77,099 people that their personal information was stolen in an August data breach. he mega asset manager has not disclosed what data the digital crooks nabbed, but assured customers that the security snafu “did not involve any access to your Fidelity account(s).” But hey, no worries, the firm claimed no evidence of data misuse.

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DAILY UPDATE: UnitedHealth Group and Fidelity Investments Suffer Ransomware Attacks as Stock Markets Crash

Posted on March 6, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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According to Fidelity, in documents filed with the Maine attorney general’s office, miscreants “likely acquired” information about 28,268 people’s life insurance policies after infiltrating Infosys.

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Criminals have probably stolen nearly 30,000 Fidelity Investments Life Insurance customers’ personal and financial information — including bank account and routing numbers, credit card numbers and security or access codes — after breaking into Infosys’ IT systems.

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Healthcare providers across the United States are struggling to get paid following the week-long ransomware outage at a key tech unit of UnitedHealth Group, with some smaller medical providers saying they are already running low on cash.

And, the nation’s health-care system continues to reel from a cyberattack that has crippled payments for tens of thousands of organizations as Daniel Gilbert writes in The Post.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

Here’s where the major benchmarks ended:

  • The S&P 500® index (SPX) dropped 52.30 points (1.0%) to 5,078.65; the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 404.64 points (1.0%) to 38,585.19; the NASDAQ Composite fell 267.92 points (1.7%) to 15,939.59.
  • The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) fell about 8 basis points to 4.137%.
  • The CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX) rose 0.97 to 14.46.

With chip makers under pressure, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) fell 2.1%, reversing part of a recent surge to a record high. Consumer discretionary and real estate shares also ranked among the weakest performers Tuesday. Banks were one of the few industries to buck the broader weakness, perhaps supported by further declines in Treasury yields. The 10-year Treasury note yield (TNX) almost fell to a four-week low near 4.11%. The KBW Regional Banking Index (KRX) jumped 4.3%. 

In other markets, bitcoin plunged almost 10% after climbing earlier Tuesday to a record above $69,000. The cryptocurrency had rallied as much as 36% over the last week of February. 

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Why You’re Better off with Variable Annuities than Mutual Funds?

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

Investing Under the Umbrella

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA, CMP™

[Editor-in-Chief]

http://www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org

While participation in savings programs such as 401(k), 403(b), IRAs, and SEPs were at record numbers before the “flash-crash” of 2008-09, each of these plans is subject to a contribution cap.

Consequently, investors are always looking for tax-efficient methods to save more for retirement; especially medical professionals as the economy improves as it has been doing of late. Many have turned, or continue to use, mutual funds. In fact approximately 47% of mutual fund assets are composed of nonqualified funds. And, investors tend to buy mutual funds on the basis of before-tax performance rankings.

Enter the VAs

But these folks might far better off with variable annuities [VAs] according to C. Michael Carty and Robert E. Skinner in the article “Variable Annuities vs. Mutual Funds” (Financial Planning, November 1996, pp. 75–84, Securities Data Publishing, Inc). In fact, they present a strong case for investing in variable annuities (said to operate under an umbrella that protects them from current taxation and inflation) as compared to mutual funds, which may continue today.

The Dickson-Shoven Study

Carty and Skinner refer to a 1993 study by Dickson and Shoven conducted at Stanford University in which mutual funds were ranked on an after-tax basis. The change in relative rankings was dramatic. Dickson and Shoven concluded that:

  • Investors should always use after-tax rankings to evaluate and select mutual funds.
  • Given two investments with similar pretax returns, an investor should select the one involving fewer taxes.
  • A variety of approaches to sheltering or deferring taxes should be considered.

And, in one of the first comparison of returns between variable annuities and mutual funds, Rodney Rhoda of Fidelity Investments demonstrated that the difference in expense charges between variable annuities and mutual funds are less than one would expect because of lower variable annuity trading costs and a more stable asset base, which is usually more fully invested.

Assessment

I am not a fan of VAs as several essays in this ME-P suggest. Fees, expenses, loads and commissions are just too darned high.  And, most are sold, not bought.

However, the authors demonstrated that under either lump-sum or gradual withdrawal assumptions, variable annuities consistently beat mutual funds, particularly for medium to high tax-bracket investors who achieve only median investment performance. Low tax-bracket investors who achieve average or lower investment performance benefit least from variable annuities. Also, variable annuities have been shown to be more likely to withstand the ravages of inflation.

And so, the conundrum continues.

Conclusion

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