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It is half-time for the 2018 markets and the heavy lifting is being done, literally, by just a few stocks.  More specifically, a recent report from CNBC indicated that only three companies, you guessed it, Amazon, Microsoft, and Netflix, are responsible for 70% of the move higher in the S&P this year.  That alone is amazing, but when it follows an on average gain in 2017 for the same three stocks of about 47%, it becomes  a real life Monster Jam show.  For the record, the S&P is higher by 4.1% year to date. 

Going to a baseball game is a wonderful way to spend a day in the summer. Typically, your day at the ballpark is only complete with a beer and a hotdog! How much more does this classic food and drink combo cost at your favorite ballpark? Let’s find out.   The cheapest hot dog is $1.50 dollars at the Baltimore Orioles’ stadium, while the most expensive is a tie with the New York Mets, LA Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs at $6.50 a dog. The league average for a hotdog is $5.10. Now it’s time to wash it down with a beer! The cheapest beer is at the Colorado Rockies’ stadium, costing $3. The most expensive is again the NY Mets at $10.50 a beer. The league average is $5.98. Sorry to all you Mets fans, a beer and a hotdog is $17.00! The cheapest beer and hotdog combo is the Baltimore Orioles’ for grand total of $5.50, and the ball park average is $11.08. What is the take-away? Always remember to account for all possible expenses when deciding to have a little fun. Some of these prices are steep and you would not want a day at the ballpark to put a huge dent in your wallet. Enjoy the ball game!   Info Sources: Statisa.com

In the year following a company being removed from the Dow, the stock performance is surprisingly positive.  Exiled from the Dow, Goldman Sachs instructs us that Aloca (AA) was up 96% in the year following, AT&T (T) was up 15%, Bank of America (BA) rose 17%, and Hewlett Packard (HPQ) rallied 73%.  Those are pretty impressive numbers to consider as GE, the last of the original Dow 30 members, is booted to the curb after more than 100 years. 

There is a lot of talk about U.S. company market caps this week as Apple Inc. nears the trillion dollar milestone.  A trillion dollar company, why not?  We had the first billion dollar company, U.S. Steel in 1901, over 117 years ago.  We had the first 100 billion dollar man, Jeff Bezos, last year.  It is just a well-deserved number for Apple Inc. now.  Not to bring people down, but GE had a market cap of $594 billion in August 2000 and unfortunately that number is $118 billion today, down about $476 billion.  To put this into a weird  perspective, $1,000 dollar bills would need to be stacked 63 MILES high to equal a trillion. Has your mind been blown yet?

                The ground is still covered in snow, but the sun is shining bright and there isn’t a cloud to be seen in the sky as we hit the mid-point of March here in Upstate New York. It is still cold for T-shirts and the golf course still doesn’t look accessible for quite some time yet there is a good feeling in the air. It is the feeling that spring is just around the corner. Soon enough we fill find ourselves watching the rapid scenic transition from white to brown to green and there will be an oddly satisfying feeling because of it. We’ll notice a storm of college students flock to their campus quads playing Kan-Jam and cornhole to find another excuse not to write their 10-page paper due Monday. We’ll find ourselves cleaning up the yard work left over from another long winter and reading arguments between Yankees and Red Sox fans on social media as baseball is resurrected again. Soon enough will we complain that it is too hot during the day and watch the summer sunsets fade into the night… but this is getting too far ahead.                While in this annual transition period you may have a lot to do and a lot of questions to answer, however here is one that you may want to ask yourself. Are there any ways in which I can save money as the weather gets nicer? Of course, there are! Here are the Dollar Investment Clubs 5 best ways to save money as the weather gets nicer! While heating your house during the long winter nights is pretty much unavoidable, you can now start to eliminate that cost as the weather gets warmer and you don’t have to use it. Perhaps use a programmable thermostat in which it […]