This week’s “Three on Thursday” examines the semiconductor industry and American progress in independent chip manufacturing. Rising political tensions and supply chain issues pulled back the curtain on the entangled industry back in 2020. Two years later, demand surges for AI and data centers put semiconductors even further under the microscope.

The government officially shut down yesterday as Congress failed to pass—and the President failed to sign—appropriations bills (or a stopgap “continuing resolution”) to fund government operations for the start of the new fiscal year on October 1st.

Housing in America is becoming increasingly out of reach. Home prices have surged far faster than household incomes, mortgage rates remain stuck in the mid-6% range—roughly double what buyers faced before 2022—and the ongoing costs of ownership keep rising. Higher property-tax bills added yet another burden in 2024, tacking on hundreds of dollars a year for the typical owner.

Last week, the Social Security Trustees released their annual report, forecasting the program’s financial outlook over the next 75 years. In this week’s “Three on Thursday,” we delve into the state of Social Security.

As trade tensions have escalated in recent weeks, some fear that Japan and China are “dumping” U.S. Treasuries in an effort to pressure the U.S. by driving up interest rates. We believe that concern is overstated. In this week’s edition of Three on Thursday, we dig into the details of U.S. federal debt ownership. As of the end of March, total federal debt stood at $36.2 trillion—an increase of 4.7% from a year ago. But who actually owns all this debt? Many assume it’s mostly foreign governments, but is that the case? To provide a more comprehensive understanding, we have included three charts below.

When Doug Turner, a Haddonfield Financial Planning client, hand-delivered about twenty-five invitations to his Celebration of Winter Party, slated to go “until the cops arrive,” social media lit up with well over two million views of a video capturing one of Doug’s personal deliveries!

Despite tariff concerns and an AI scare driving the bid for safe haven assets towards the end of the month, strong earnings and consumer spending drove another positive month of equity returns in January.

Despite still stubborn inflation, a brief growth scare, less than expected interest rate cuts, and a pullback in December, US equities were up notably in 2024 on the back of a strong economy, accelerating earnings growth, US election results, and AI/megacap-related strength.

Amid the results of the US presidential election and resilient economic data, equities were up in November. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 indices produced their best monthly returns of 2024, gaining 7.7% and 5.9%, respectively. US small-caps (+10.9%) were among the best performers, followed by US mid-caps (+9.0%) and US growth (+6.1%).

Amid underwhelming Big Tech earnings, concerns regarding the path for Fed interest rate cuts, election uncertainty, and geopolitical conflict, equities were down in October as the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq 100 Index fell 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively. International developed equities (-5.0%) were among the worst performers, followed by US small-caps (-2.6%) and emerging market equities (-2.6%). Bonds also struggled as 7-10 year US Treasuries decreased 3.4%, the US Aggregate Bond Index declined 2.6%, and investment grade corporates were down 2.5%. Aside from broad based commodities (-1.3%), silver, crude oil, and gold all produced positive returns, gaining 4.9%, 4.5%, and 4.3%, respectively.