Market Update | January 2026

New year, new market shifts. Get the latest updates from WHZ Managing Partner, Advisor Leisl L. Langevin, CFP® CDFA®.

- Subscribe to the You and Your Money podcast
- Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube
- See how we can create a tailored financial strategy to help you live with Absolute Confidence, Unwavering Partnership, For Life: whzwealth.com

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the monthly market update on You and Your Money. Today's episode features Leisel Langevin, managing partner advisory at WHZ Strategic Wealth Advisors. mean, there's obviously a lot of headlines, especially with the Venezuela news so that, that has investors feeling maybe a little nervous, but it's probably already been priced in, didn't see markets move too much. So that, that's already been priced in. But really, I mean, when we're looking at these headlines, we're also focusing on the economic fundamentals. So things like jobs. that'll help us understand where people are in the labor market, how that's doing. Inflation, we saw in December, that was slowing down to 2.6% year over year, so that's the lowest since early 2021. And investors had expected 3.1%, so that's a, a good report there. Of course, we had the fiscal policy with the OBBBA, Mm-hmm.... tongue twister. But that you know, was passed in 2025, and so we'll see when people are filing their tax returns. They'll probably have a little more income and, and return coming back to them with the higher deductions. So all of these things factor into how markets have, have done. So if we look at the year in review in 2025, I bet most people didn't think that the foreign markets were actually up higher than the US markets. So, that's why a diversified portfolio is so key in times like this. So as of December 31st, the... I'll start with the highest returns. The international markets were up about 31%. So that's a pretty big number. Right. Then we had the NASDAQ, which is mostly driven by tech, and that's, that was up about 21% in 2025. And then going down to the S&P, 17.8%. Wow. And and then you bring it down to bonds, 7.3%. So again, what do you do about all these things? A diversified investment mix is key when you're dealing with markets and investing for long term. And just remember, keep calm, and remember what your long-term strategy is. That's so important and so that's an update on the markets, For more information regarding wealth management and customized financial planning with WHZ Strategic Wealth Advisors, please visit whz wealth.com whz strategic wealth Advisors offer securities and advisory services through Commonwealth Financial Network Member FINRA sipc, a registered investment advisor Fixed insurance products and services offered through CES Insurance Agency. They practice at 697 Pomfret Street Pomfret Center Center, CT 06259 and 392AMerrow Road, Toland, CT 06084. They can be reached at 860-928-2341. WHZ Strategic Wealth Advisors do not provide legal or tax advice. The tenured financial services team strives to support clients in achieving their financial life goals while providing absolute confidence and unwavering partnership for life.