Last week was another loser in the books.
I actually was beginning to think that we had a chance for the equities averages and indexes to finally capitulate.
I was telling a friend that if Friday continued the slide that Monday this week could get really volatile and send this market into bear market territory.
Friday, however, reversed the trend, sending the S&P 500 index up over 100 points to close above the 200 day moving averages.
So much for my prognostication skills. Seems you just can’t keep this market down.
With all the tariff policies initiated of late, more and more analysts are alarmed as to the negative impact on the economy.
Some are even starting to use the recession word.
We did get inflation reports last week for the Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index which were lower than projected.
It was not enough to lead anyone to predict the Federal Reserve would be lowering interest rates soon.
It seems that investors took money off the table and the Mag 7 were revalued at lower P/E levels.
With the S&P above 5600, investors may just have dodged a very big bullet.
The news of late has been coming fast and furious and I see no let up.
At least this weekend we avoided a government shutdown.
One check on the positive side of the ledger.
On the negative side, our deficit grew at record levels for the last quarter of last year and then for the first two months of this year. Apparently DOGE hasn’t weeded out all the overspending yet.
Closer to home, our Texas-based airline Southwest is becoming a very different company.
After activist investors got involved, a myriad of changes are being implemented.
Gone are the days of open seating and free bags.
You literally won’t be flying for peanuts anymore.
Nothing lasts forever, but I never was bothered by any of the airlines efforts to get you where wanted to go on time and at a major cost savings over the legacy airlines.
Seemed to have taken the place of the bus lines.
Just another change in consumers taste.
Here is hoping that the luck of the Irish will prevail this week.
I hope you enjoyed St Patrick’s Day and let’s keep the green feeling going with this market recovering.
Not really believing it will, but why not fantasize.