Reviewing the Highs of 2025 and Looking Ahead to 2026 Lesko Financial Services Team It was another strong year for markets in 2025, as continued investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, more Fed rate cuts, and stable economic growth offset higher tariff rates and overall economic volatility. The S&P 500 rose to an all-time high in the fourth quarter as new... Read More February 2026 Issue #18319 Page 106
Slowing Growth and Sticky Inflation Ahead for Q4 Lesko Financial Services Team The U.S. economy entered the Fourth Quarter of the year with fading momentum and increasing caution signs from some indicators, including a weakening labor market, challenging financial realities, and lingering inflation. Analysts are forecasting GDP growth of only 1.9% for the last three months... Read More November 2025 Issue #17316 Page 96
Economic Outlook: Resilience and Uncertainty Lesko Financial Services Team The first half of this year ended with the U.S. economy showing a resilience that forecasters weren’t expecting. Solid growth in earnings and jobs, plus a rebound after the chaos of early tariff announcements, powered past the pessimism and steep market declines of April and helped the... Read More August 2025 Issue #17313 Page 92
Economic Outlook: Uncertainty and Volatility Lesko Financial Services Team Encouraging data including a downtick in inflation and the prospect of interest rate cuts early in the year fueled optimism, bolstered by hopes of deregulation and the extension of tax cuts put into place during the first Trump presidency. Stocks rallied on hopes for a new era of positive growth... Read More May 2025 Issue #17310 Page 118
Starting 2025 with Reserved Optimism Lesko Financial Services Team We’re starting 2025 with reserved optimism. Investors, the markets, and the world at large are still reviewing, digesting, and anticipating the implications of the results of last year’s U.S. Presidential and Congressional elections. One year ago, analysts and economists still... Read More February 2025 Issue #17307 Page 122
US Economy & the Markets Lesko Financial Services Team Heading into the last quarter of the year, the US economy sent out several strong signals that is remains resilient and robust. Third quarter inflation continued a downward trend, with annualized numbers beginning to approach the Central Bank’s target. But softening of the job market over... Read More November 2024 Issue #16304 Page 90
Economy Still Signaling Growth at Mid-Year But Not Among All Sectors Lesko Financial Services Team The U.S. economy at mid-year continued to show signs of continued resilience and growth—even if such strength remains uneven throughout all sectors. The labor market consistently added jobs in the second quarter but has not kept up with expectations and, more recently, showed signs of... Read More August 2024 Issue #16301 Page 62
Economic Resilience Extends into the Second Quarter Lesko Financial Services Team The first quarter of 2024 ended on a positive note, which hopefully will prove to be a solid foundation for the remainder of the year. Despite lingering inflation, the U.S. economy continued to show resilience and added increasing optimism for the much-sought-after “soft... Read More May 2024 Issue #16298 Page 76
A Mixed Start to 2024 Lesko Financial Services Team Beginnings always feed the temptation to look ahead and make predictions, and recent economic news, podcasts, and websites have featured their fill. 2024 went out on a fairly positive note and it was tempting to try to extend that optimism beyond the first few weeks of January. But despite... Read More February 2024 Issue #16295 Page 64
Surprising Resilience Tempered By Lingering Pressures in Quarter 4 Lesko Financial Services Team As the Fourth Quarter got underway, there were strong signs that the U.S. economy remains resilient, despite stock market volatility and consumers beginning to express some wobbles in confidence. But the crisis in the Middle East, political divisiveness in the U.S., and chaotic developments... Read More November 2023 Issue #15292 Page 78