Actionable market insights that have outperformed the S&P 500 for over 26 years.

It has been a wild month with the first significant downdraft since last April. The Sound Advice portfolio did well in the first quarter, thanks primarily to our energy holdings and downside hedges, but the overall market did not.  It was very easy to get sidetracked by the spectacle of the military activities and lose sight of the major trends.  When the activities die down in Iran, oil prices are certain to drop, perhaps not to the low levels seen before escalations, but substantially lower than they are now...

It has been the best of times for stock market indexes. The S&P 500 Index rose 16.4 percent in 2025 because the Magnificent 7 -- Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet Class A (Google Class A & C), Tesla, Meta Platforms Class A, and Broadcom – did very well and comprised 37.7 percent of the S&P 500 Index due to their heavy capitalization weighting. It was the worst of times for rest of the market. Churning and rotations undermined the other 493 stocks comprising the S&P 500 Index. Without the Magnificent 7, the Index rose only 2.9 percent.

At the end of January, the so-called Magnificent 7 reported earnings that were good, but not good enough in view of the growth expected by sky-high price earnings ratios averaging 78.5. The reactions were mixed and the group has been flat so far this year. In 2025, the Magnificent 7 -- Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet Class A (Google Class A & C), Tesla, Meta Platforms Class A, and Broadcom – did very well and comprised 37.7 percent of the S&P 500 Index because of the heavy capitalization weighting.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world, even more than Saudi Arabia. Since 2007, after the prior Venezuelan president nationalized all oil assets in 2007, production has dwindled to a trickle. The surprising capture of Venezuelan President Maduro over the weekend and the prospect of changing leadership there favorably impacted our energy holdings on the following Monday market opening.