Womack Investment Advisers

Did you know that giving thanks – thinking of the blessings and happy moments you experience each day – can improve your life? According to the Mayo Clinic, positive thinking can actually make you healthier. The many benefits include: Reducing stress levels Improving resistance to colds Reducing the risk of coronary artery disease Improving breathing in patients with some lung diseases If it’s hard for you to stay focused on the positive and identify things that you’re grateful for, you may want to try one of these activities: Keep a gratitude journal Each day, write down the things for which you are grateful – a beautiful sunset, a warm home, the companionship of family or friends. There should be no negative thoughts in a gratitude journal, only positive ones. Practice mindfulness Mindfulness is paying attention to the here and now by observing your thoughts without being critical or judgmental. Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhism, and has be...

The longest bull market in history showed no signs of slowing last week. U.S. stock markets climbed higher for the sixth week straight – the longest rally in U.S. markets in two years – and the Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassed 28,000 for the very first time, reported Bloomberg . The Economist reported, “It has been a year of mood swings in financial markets. In the spring and summer, anxious investors piled into the safety of government bonds, driving yields down sharply. Yields have recovered in recent weeks…Equity prices in America have reached a new peak. But what is more striking is the performance of cyclical stocks relative to defensive ones. Within America’s market the prices of industrial stocks, which do well in business-cycle upswings, have risen relative to the prices of utility stocks, a safer bet in hard times.” Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell confirmed the United States appears to be in good economic shape. The U.S. economic outlo...

Despite President Donald Trump’s campaign assurances that he would put West Virginia coal miners “back to work”, the president of the United Mine Workers of America recently rather bluntly that “Coal’s not back.   Nobody saved the coal industry.” He said despite promises from both sides of the political spectrum, coal fired plants are closing all over the country, calling it a “harsh reality”.     Only one, relatively small, new coal-fired generator with a capacity of 17 megawatts is expected to come online by the end of the year and overall coal consumption is expected to decline a further 8% from last year’s levels even while the US economy continues to expand.   The main reason?   A period of sustained, low natural gas prices and lots of supply (mostly due to fracking) has kept the cost of generating electricity with natural gas competitive with generation from coal.    In addition, increased competition from renewable energy sources have a...