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Interest Rates
In early 2023, we have seen a bit of a return of the speculative euphoria that was so pervasive in 2020 and 2021, which has driven up asset prices once again.  Market participants are more optimistic about things based on the belief that inflationary pressures are headed far lower, which should result in the end...
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  “You don’t find out who is swimming naked until the tide comes out.” Warren Buffett   Financial markets over the short-term are akin to middle school popularity contests.  The euphoria or pessimism of the day generally reflects recent price performance.  Because there is 24/7 coverage, media pundits feel like they have to give reasons...
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We are in the early weeks of earnings season, and overall, the results have been quite impressive.  The banking sector saw continued improvement in net interest margins, with credit normalizing a bit.  One must remember that we are coming off the most enormous stimulus package in history in 2020, which created the best credit environment...
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Inflation and its impact on interest rates continues to be the driving factor in financial markets and the overall economy.  There are certainly signs of inflation slowing down in a practical sense, with what we are seeing in housing, as prices decline in many of the formerly hottest markets.  That will take time to show...
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The Huge Cost of Trying to Time the Market and Favorable Election-Year DynamicsToday I saw an interesting statistic that I wanted to share with you.  If you sold stocks at the bottom of each 10% selloff, and then bought back 10 days later, you’d miss out on over 2/3rds of the gains since 2002.  This...
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The stock market has reacted very negatively to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkish interest rate outlook, with the S&P declining by roughly 6% over the last 4 days.  Weaker economic data and declining commodity prices gave market participants hope that the Fed might pivot, pointing to less rate hikes, but Powell talked a tough game,...
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Today’s CPI report was very positive, coming in lower than expected.  This is very good news, if this trend continues the Federal Reserve might slow down on its rate hikes.  In addition, Friday’s July employment numbers were better than expected, although new unemployment claims are starting to rise, as companies are ramping up layoffs in...
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On Wednesday the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 50 bps, or 1/2%.  Initially the market reacted favorably to this with a strong rally on Wednesday, only to be reversed with the biggest down day since 2020 on Thursday.  Tech/glamour stocks have simply been getting obliterated.  Tesla dropped 8.3% on the day, while Amazon dropped...
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2022 is shaping up to be quite the crazy year.  While this horrible war in Ukraine dominates media headlines, I can’t help but feeling like inflation might be the dominant theme of the next decade.  Using “government” numbers, inflation is running at about 7.9%.  Shelter is the single biggest component of CPI at 33% of...
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Today the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 bps.  With inflation so high, it almost certainly would have been 50 bps if not for the concerns over the economy related to the impact of the Russian/Ukraine war, which is exasperating things materially.  There has been some very positive dialogue from both Ukraine and Russia...
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