Similar to last week, “I don’t know what the next headline is going to do to oil, inflation, or rates”, is the main thought of investors right now.

The Nasdaq having weaker performance than the S&P and Dow makes sense. When investors get nervous, they usually sell what feels “expensive” or most sensitive to interest rates. Tech-heavy indexes tend to take that hit first. And this week, that’s exactly what happened.

Even though the big indexes were down, the Russell 2000 (small caps) was slightly positive. That doesn’t mean we’re suddenly in a small-cap bull market. This means the market is losing faith in big tech’s high valuations and looking for ways positions where future growth has less risk.

The trend that’s continuing this month was oil and geopolitics. The market is treating higher oil prices like a tax that hits everything: business costs, consumer budgets, inflation expectations, and then interest rates. That’s why this week didn’t feel like a normal pullback. It felt like people reducing risk because the world feels harder to predict.

A correction just means an index is down 10% or more from a recent high. And this week, the Dow closed in correction territory, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq moved to multi-month lows.

When markets get close to that line, behavior changes. Investors get more defensive, headlines move prices faster, and people stop “buying the dip” automatically. They start asking, “Is this just a pullback… or is this something bigger?”

We got a fresh read on how people are feeling, and it wasn’t great. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index dropped to 53.3. A main driver of the fear in the market is how people expect prices to rise faster over the next year.

When confidence is low, a decrease in spending follows. If people feel squeezed, then discretionary spending is what usually gets hit first (travel, restaurants, “nice to have” purchases). That’s why this is important.

Here’s the economic picture in plain terms: the economy didn’t suddenly fall apart this week, but the signals are telling us the same thing the market is feeling: things are getting tighter and people are getting more cautious.

We got weekly jobless claims at 210,000, which is still a low number historically so this isn’t a story of a recession just yet.

The next major test is the U.S. jobs report. Markets are watching it closely because it helps answer the key question: Are we just dealing with a nervous market… or is the economy actually slowing in a meaningful way?

This wasn’t a week where the market rewarded “good stories.” It rewarded clear, specific catalysts which are events and announcements that force buyers to show up.

The Best Six Months strategy is one that has produced the results most investors want: great returns at reduced risk. This strategy is simple:

This easy to understand strategy has a success rater of 78% since 1950 and returns an average of 7.4% annually.

April is historically the best month for Dow Jones stocks. The index averages a 1.8% gain in the month. Here are two DJI index funds you may be interested to invest in or trade this month.

When most parents think about saving for their child’s education, the 529 plan is usually the first thing that comes to mind. But there’s another account that has been around longer and offers something the 529 can’t: the freedom to invest in virtually any stock, ETF, or mutual fund you choose. The Coverdell Education Savings Account (ESA) is a tax-advantaged account built specifically for education expenses from kindergarten through college. It’s not as well known, and it comes with tighter restrictions, but for the right family it can be a powerful addition to the education savings strategy.

Here is everything you need to know about Coverdell ESAs.

A Coverdell Education Savings Account is a tax-advantaged investment account designed to pay for a child’s education expenses. Contributions grow tax-free, and withdrawals are also tax-free when used for qualified education expenses.

Think of it as a Roth IRA specifically built for education. You contribute after-tax dollars, the money grows without being taxed, and you pay no taxes when you pull the money out — as long as you spend it on qualifying education costs.

Any individual can open a Coverdell ESA for a child as long as the contributor’s income falls within the IRS limits. The child must be under the age of 18 when the account is opened (an exception exists for beneficiaries with special needs, for whom there is no age restriction).

The contributor does not have to be related to the beneficiary. A parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, family friend, or even the child themselves can open and contribute to a Coverdell ESA, as long as the income requirements are met.

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