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Hey everyone and welcome to the big picture retirement show.

Today is a special episode with special guest, Andrew Comstock.

We're going to talk about the market and some of the volatility that we've been seeing lately with these huge swings. And he's going to break it down for us and let us know what we might

can expect moving forward. Hey, Andrew, welcome to the show. Hey, Devin, how are you doing today? Good. We haven't had you on in a while and it's our own disorganization that's been the issue. It hasn't been because we haven't wanted you on as a guest. So I apologize. It's been a little while, but I'm so thankful that you're here today.

I'm grateful to be back.

So a lot to talk about with the markets right now.

Yeah. wanted you on as a guest. So I apologize. It's been a little while, but I'm so thankful that you're here today. I'm grateful to be back. So a lot to talk about with the market is right now. Yeah, we've seen some huge swings in the market. Today, as we're recording this, the market is up almost 700 points. If you look at the Dow, the S&P, you know, as a percentage is up close to the same. I mean, we're seeing these big swings the last two days were big declines in the market.

And yet, as investors, when we look at this, is up close to the same. I mean, we're seeing these big swings the last two days were big declines

in the market. And yet, as investors, when we look at this to try to figure out what's going on

with the market and why is it moving around so much, we keep coming back to one recurring theme

and that's interest rate. So I'm going to let you take the story from there and tell us a little

bit about where we are for the year and why the market is behaving as it has for the year.

Absolutely. So I think, you know, in terms of stocks, kind of the headline numbers that we're talking about, we'll start off with the S&P 500, which are roughly the largest 500 companies here in the United States.

Right now, with all the movements we've had, we're only down about roughly half percent, and we're recording this on March 26th. So we've had a big day to day.

So with all the moves we've had this year, and I think that there's been a lot more thought than we've had a lot more downside moves, we're only down about half percent for the year, give or take a little bit.

We are off a fair amount since the all-time high seen in the end of January. We're off about 7 percent from those highs or those peak levels. But things are not nearly as bad as some people may think it is right now. And we've had a lot of volatility. And I think you hit one of the major components, which has been the increase in interest rates. We have the Federal Reserve. We've got a new Fed chair who's in power. Mr. Powell has done a good job, I think, of kind of meeting the market expectation so far, but rates have been steadily moving up. Probably the interest rate most frequently quoted is the 10-year treasury. And that's what a lot of things are based on in the economy. But most importantly, probably all of our mortgages. So if anybody goes out and gets a mortgage,

this is one of those key interest rate metrics. And so right now it stands at about 2.8.5%. And earlier

this year, it got as high as about 2.95%. And it started the year about 2.4%. So we're up, you know, we're up almost about 0.4% on interest rates. You know, that's pretty sizable move from where we were. We are off kind of the highest levels in terms of where the rates were, but we're definitely seeing interest rates move higher. And that's one factor that we're looking at. The other thing I think is kind of what's going on in DC right now. That's the talk of a trade war with China and some the tariff stuff. And that's bringing some volatility back into the markets. And the return of volatility is probably been a little bit excessive this year. But last year, there was a lot of complacency. And so while the moves that we're seeing the last, let's say, 30 or 40 days have been significantly above average, you know, the moves that we saw last year where there was virtually no volatility were very, very historic in terms of just the lack of movement we've seen.

So in general, I think the volatility with what we're seeing is something we're probably all going to have to get a little more comfortable with,

particularly for people who got accustomed to a smooth ride last year. Right. You know, it's almost as if you're previewing Monday's episode for us. So Monday, we're going to have a special guest, David Stein on, who I heard him on his podcast, money for the rest of us. He covered this whole trade issue

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