• As we celebrate Independence Day, we want to take a moment to reflect on the freedoms and opportunities we enjoy as Americans and express our gratitude for the privilege of calling this country home.
• This week’s economic data presented a mixed picture, with weaker than expected job numbers suggesting the pace of economic growth may be beginning to slow.
• Recent revisions to prior employment reports reinforced the view that the labor market has been gradually losing momentum over the past several months.
• At the same time, oil and gasoline prices have declined meaningfully, helping to ease inflationary pressures across the economy.
• With both employment and inflation moving in different directions, expectations for future Federal Reserve policy have shifted significantly.
• Rather than raising interest rates, markets are now increasingly anticipating that the Federal Reserve could hold rates steady or even consider lowering them if economic conditions continue to soften.
• While the headlines continue to change from week to week, our long term investment philosophy remains unchanged. We stay focused on what matters most rather than reacting to every market prediction.
• We continue to believe that disciplined investing, combined with thoughtful risk management, is the best way to navigate uncertain markets.
• Our Invest and Protect strategy remains an important part of helping safeguard your retirement should market conditions deteriorate unexpectedly.
• Looking ahead, we are closely monitoring growing similarities between today’s technology sector and the conditions that preceded the dot-com market correction.
• Next week, we will take a deeper dive into the concentration of AI and technology stocks, why history may be repeating itself, and what investors should be watching closely.
• We will also examine historical examples of successful companies whose stock prices experienced significant declines despite strong business performance, highlighting the difference between a great company and a great investment.
• Market cycles will always create periods of optimism and uncertainty. Our role is to help you navigate both with confidence, discipline, and perspective.
• At Retirement Planners of America, our mission remains the same: helping you make your money last as long as you do while protecting the retirement you’ve worked so hard to build.
• As we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, we wish you and your family a safe, meaningful, and Happy Independence Day. Thank you for allowing us to be part of your retirement journey.

Transcript:

Ken Moraif 0:00
Hello, everyone, and welcome to our weekly market alert video for today, which is july 2, 2026 And this is our pre-july 4 episode, and we have a lot to talk about, but I want to first of all, as you may tell, I’m in Colorado, and we’re in Aspen, and we’re right by about an hour’s drive, hour and a half drive from where the fire that is really bad happens, and this mist that you see in the air right there, that’s not mist, that’s smoke, and I mean I can feel it in my chest, I can feel it in my nose, my eyes are burning, and so it’s actually an unhealthy level. So, I hope you guys appreciate that I am now risking my health to give you this market alert video. So, I hope you appreciate that. So, let’s talk about what just happened. We had the jobs numbers come out, and they were abysmal, terrible, and not only that, but they updated the numbers for the last periods, and those were also bad, and so you can really see it there, can’t you look at that, but anyway, so they’ve updated all those numbers, and it looks like if you look at the annual, the trend over the last 12 months, the economy is slowing down, or the jobs numbers are, and so, and then, in addition to that, you have oil prices coming way down, and gas prices coming way down, which should lower inflation. So, if that’s the case, then this whole thing about the Fed needing to raise interest rates later this year all of a sudden doesn’t make any sense anymore. So, now the consensus is no, we’re not going to, they’re not going to raise interest rates, they’re not going to do anything, if anything, they may lower interest rates because jobs are slowing down and inflation is coming down, so therefore now they need to focus on jobs. Oh my god, I am so confused, I can’t figure anything out. So we’ll keep you posted on it, but the important thing is that we have our invest and protect process in place, and should anything bad happen, which it could, you know, we’ll talk next week about the incredible similarities that we’re experiencing right now, we’re seeing with regard to how the technology stocks back during the.com crash, where the Nasdaq went down 78% and what’s happened today are eerily similar, and it could be we’re setting up for another big bad technology bear market, and we’ll talk about that one next week. What I really want to do this week, though, is since this is the Fourth of July weekend, I want to take a moment and reflect upon that. You know, I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve traveled all over the world. I’ve been to practically every country on the planet, and I can tell you that, you know, there is no country as great as ours. The good old US of A is right, you know. There is no place on the on earth as good as our.. I mean, these people that are coming over for FIFA, or you know, I mean, the Frenchies, right? And I could say Frenchies because my dad was, it was half French and half Italian, so the Frenchies.. so the Frenchies are actually here, and you know what the biggest thing they’re saying is, oh my gosh, these Americans have air conditioning. Air conditioning, I mean, are you kidding me? In today’s world, in France, they just, you know, they’re having a heat wave. 1300 people have died, and they’re marveling at the fact that we have air conditioning in this country. They don’t have it everywhere there. I mean, stuff that we take for granted. This is the greatest country, and in particular, you know, since this is our birthday, it is July, going to be july 4. You know, I think we should take a moment and just reflect upon the liberties and the freedoms that we enjoy that perhaps we take for granted, and we shouldn’t. You know, when I think about the even though I’m complaining about the smoke in the background, and all of that. You know, I mean, how fortunate are we? I could be right now, you know, in Iran and getting bombed on, or in Ukraine and having to deal with the Russians, and all.

Ken Moraif 4:11
I mean, we are so fortunate in this country, and I think this is a good time, Fourth of July, to reflect upon how wonderful does it mean everything’s perfect and nothing needs to improve? Of course not. But you know what, this is a great country, and we are blessed, and I’m so thankful that we get that. I get to live here, you know. It’s like, you know, it’s like picking your parents well. You just got, you just got lucky, right? So I hope this video finds you healthy, wealthy, and wise, the whole thing with the jobs and inflation are kind of counteracting each other, so we don’t see that as a big threat to our investments at this time, but I will tell you next week we’re going to talk in more depth about why we do think there is a significant threat brewing, a bubble brewing in. Whole technology space with the AI stocks, the data centers, and all the rest of the stuff that’s going on in that space, and how uncannily similar it is to what happened during the dot coms, and I’m even going to give you an example of a company that made tons of money, but their stock went down dramatically, like almost 90% even though they were still making money, while they were losing 90% and I’ll compare that to Nvidia. So, for those of you who are all in love with Nvidia, that’ll be a wake-up call for you, perhaps, as well. So, anyway, happy birthday, United States. 250 years, we’re still a baby, but we’re a big baby, and we have the greatest country and I’m thankful for you watching this, and I hope you’ll pass it on to your friends and your family, and I hope this video found you healthy, wealthy, and wise, and we’ll talk soon.

Economic indicators and stock market performance cannot be predicted. Opinions expressed regarding the economy and the stock market belong solely to employees of RPOA on behalf of Retirement Planners of America and may not accurately portray actual future performance of the economy or stock market outcomes. Opinions expressed in this video is intended to be for informational purposes only and is not intended to be used as investment advice for individuals who are not clients of Retirement Planners of America. All content provided is the opinion of employees of RPOA Advisors, Inc. (d/b/a Retirement Planners of America ) (“Retirement Planners of America”, “RPOA”). ©Copyright 2026