top of page
Stock Market Insights: Staying the course paid off; now the focus turns to 2026
Joe Shearrer, CPFA® is Vice President and Wealth Advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. This year my family and I spent Thanksgiving a little differently; we traded turkey and cold weather in the Midwest for sunshine and sand in Cancun. It was our first time traveling out of the country for the holiday, and stepping into a new setting offered some welcomed perspective. Much like markets this year, the experience reminded me that change can be healthy, and sometimes staying p
Joe Shearer, CPFA
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Wide market participation signals strong year-end Outlook for stocks
Dr. Richard Baker, AIF®, is the CEO and executive wealth advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. I was pheasant hunting in South Dakota with my boys this last weekend, and we frequently found ourselves on roads with deep mud holes. If it weren’t for our four-wheel drive, we would have been in a mess. Broadening traction is good for mud and even better for the market. Right now, the market advance is expanding across multiple sectors, which is a big positive. Markets have re
Dr. Richard Baker
2 min read
Stock Market Insights: Stock Market suffers sharp selloff as doubts rise over AI trade and NVIDIA’s future
Dr. Richard Baker, AIF®, is the CEO and executive wealth advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. The neighboring town near where I grew up has an old Missouri Pacific railroad roundhouse. It was already out of use when I was a boy, but it still fascinated me that big steam engines would be driven onto a turntable and rotated around to change directions. There are more tracks today, so it’s easier to turn trains around, but changing directions is still a big deal, maybe even m
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: When the trail narrows, why valuations matter for investors
Joe Shearrer, CPFA® is Vice President and Wealth Advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. Several summers ago, I hiked to the summit of Mount Bierstadt in Colorado—one of the state’s more popular fourteeners. The climb up was challenging yet straightforward: a wide trail, a steady pace and clear footing. But the real adventure came next. From Bierstadt’s peak, I crossed the narrow “Sawtooth” ridge that connects to Mount Evans. The Sawtooth isn’t for the faint of heart. On on
Joe Shearer, CPFA
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Europe’s debt shift, why southern economies are rising as northern nations struggle
There is wisdom in having international holdings in your portfolio. It gives you diversification because global stocks and other governments are not in lockstep with the U.S.
Dr. Richard Baker
4 min read
Stock Market Insights: Leveraged single-stock ETFs explained, high risk, high reward or just wealth destroyers?
These single-stock varieties have become popular among investors who tend to be gamblers. They have the potential for high returns but also huge losses.
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Is rising market turbulence a real trend or just isolated events
Dr. Richard Baker, AIF®, is the CEO and executive wealth advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. I was recently speaking with one of my best friends, who is a pilot, about flight turbulence. He said there are two kinds of turbulence: natural turbulence caused by weather (wind) and pilot-induced turbulence, which happens when a pilot makes a mistake. We are beginning to see some increased turbulence (market volatility), but is it a change to overall maket conditions or is it
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Bank earnings beat expectations, serving as bellwether for a strong economy
Dr. Richard Baker, AIF®, is the CEO and executive wealth advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. I read recently that a young Australian Shepherd dog was missing after a traffic accident, and everyone was to be on the lookout. Though he was a pet, his breed's original job was to herd sheep. Another great shepherding tool was the use of a bellwether, where the farmer put a bell around the neck of the lead sheep, causing the rest of the flock to stay grouped around him. Inve
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Gold at record highs - why investors are looking beyond the dollar
Joe Shearrer, CPFA® is Vice President and Wealth Advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. When the world feels uncertain — inflation high, government debt ballooning, central banks under pressure — investors tend to look beyond the dollar for a safety net. Gold, the age-old hedge, often leads that retreat. But to understand why, you must see them not as speculative gambles, but as symptoms of a deeper impulse: the urge to preserve value when faith in paper money wavers. Gold
Joe Shearer, CPFA
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Stocks in October—shutdown uncertainty vs. Q4 seasonal gains
Dr. Richard Baker, AIF®, is the CEO and executive wealth advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. As a kid, October was the month for...
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Mortgage rates are rising despite Fed cuts—here’s why
The Fed sets the overnight banking rate, which is used as a baseline for other loans, but is not used for mortgage rates.
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Markets react as Fed shifts policy, investors look ahead
Inflation remains above the central bank’s 2% target, but signs of a cooling labor market — slower job creation, rising jobless claims — appear to have convinced policymakers that keeping rates elevated may do more harm than good.
Joe Shearer, CPFA
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: UK debt crisis - a warning sign for the world
It was the kind of milestone that made both politicians and investors consider the fiscal health of the world’s leading economies, and they probably didn’t like what they saw.
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: September’s market test - what history, rates, GDP and profits tell us
For nearly a century, September has been the S&P 500’s weakest month. Since 1928, the index has averaged a decline of just over one percent and has finished lower more than half the time...
Joe Shearer, CPFA
4 min read
Stock Market Insights: Tariffs, debt and markets - why old tools still matter for the U.S. economy
Dr. Richard Baker, AIF®, is the CEO and executive wealth advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. Tariffs have become a pawn in America’s...
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Tech pullback or seasonal pause? What the market is signaling
On Tuesday, August 19, the Nasdaq Composite, the U.S. stock market's main technology index, had its biggest loss in weeks.
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: The trap of calm markets - what every investor should know
Dr. Richard Baker, AIF®, is the CEO and executive wealth advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. My daughter and her husband were on a...
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: From tariffs to tech, what’s fueling this earnings season
While the numbers are encouraging, investors are primarily focused on forward-looking guidance from company leadership to measure their ability to navigate the next few months.
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Winning the tariff war - Can the world economy handle the consequences?
The Japan deal came on the heels of two other deals with Indonesia and the Philippines. The Indonesia deal alone increases the Indonesia tariff payments from last year's $1 billion to just over $7 billion.
Dr. Richard Baker
3 min read
Stock Market Insights: Stocks at record highs; what should investors do now?
Joe Shearrer, CPFA® is Vice President and Wealth Advisor at Fervent Wealth Management. Since bottoming out in April, the U.S. stock...
Joe Shearer, CPFA
3 min read
bottom of page