It’s a good time to check your stock portfolio

Now that the first quarter is over, it’s a good time to check your stock portfolio. And you just might be in for a pleasant surprise, stock market reporter Walter Hamilton says in this video.

The stock market was off to its best start in 14 years in the first quarter, Hamilton says, and that should be reflected in your 401(k) statement. The strong first quarter followed growth in the fourth quarter, so we’ve had a good six months of rising stock prices.

But can stocks keep it up? The second quarter has hit a rough patch, and stocks closed below 13,000 Monday for the first time in a month.

The stock market was closed for Good Friday, so Monday was the first time investors had a chance to react to a disappointing U.S. jobs report. The government said Friday that the nation added only 120,000 jobs in March, half the pace from December through February.

Still, if the overall trend in economic news stays positive, there’s a good chance stocks will continue to rise.

You can find out more by reading a package of stories that ran in the Los Angeles Times’ Business section this weekend.

To find out more about how tech stocks did, click here.

To learn what retiring Baby Boomers will do to the stock market, click here.

If you’re in a target-date fund, click here to find out what risks you might be facing.