Blogs

Commonly known as the Beige Book, this report is published eight times per year. Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and Branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts and other sources. The Beige Book summarizes this information by District and sector. An overall summary of the twelve district reports is prepared by a designated Federal Reserve Bank on a rotating basis. Overall Economic Activity Retail sales, including autos, remained mixed; sales of...

Banking partners you can count on to help you achieve growth goals New Mexico’s economy – traditionally supported by federal and state government, such as the national laboratories and state universities —has had another boost from private big tech helping it chug through recent inflationary trends. Amazon has several centers around the Albuquerque metro area and Meta (Facebook) has a data center south of the city in Los Lunas. While the giant tech corporations usually rely on national or multinational banks, Andres Garcia, President and CEO of New Mexico Bank & Trust, a division of HTLF Bank...

Businesses across the U.S. display a great deal of resilience as many challenges from 2023 have spilled over into 2024 and new obstacles have left some business leaders uneasy. As businesses continue to face economic uncertainty and fraud attacks remain on the rise, having a reliable banking partner on your team to help guide decision-making will allow you to manage with confidence. In compiling survey results from our clients and reviewing reliable sources, we have created the Financial Feed to provide our market with valuable insights on the future of finance. In The Report: Strategies on...

The potentially transformative capabilities of advanced AI, automation, and robotics technology are ushering in a new era for manufacturing. Yet, at the same time, extracting value from the digital transformation is more complicated than it might seem. Case in point—an overwhelming 88% of companies report difficulties measuring value from technological investments. The same report found that 85% of companies struggle to simultaneously update operating models to accommodate their new visions and cover the upfront investment costs for new technology. These challenges are further compounded for...

Quarterly Market Review: Q4 2023 By: Paul Dickson, Director of Research and Giri Krishnan, Senior Portfolio Manager The “Soft-Landing” Has Become the Default Scenario The Federal Reserve signaled that it is likely done with rate hikes. The markets responded favorably, nearly doubling the annual return on the S&P 500. This signaling also moved the U.S. Aggregate Bond market from being in the red to having a decisively positive year. The pivot in policymakers’ outlook was somewhat of a surprise given that the data-informed policy has not improved nearly as much as their stance has changed. While...