We are in the midst of the Santa Claus rally - the next seven trading days after Christmas.
Despite the Omicron variant, most analysts project higher levels for the various indexes and averages.
This is occurring at record levels.
We experienced the same type of movement last year.
It appears to me that many people are learning to live with the thought that COVID-19 is here to stay and we have to get on with our lives.
That is nice to say, but if you were traveling this weekend and your flight got canceled, I’m not sure you are buying that theory.
I will say though that retail sales this holiday season were up over 20%.
A bigger portion of the sales were in the online category, but sales in bricks and mortar were up double digits.
Santa was giving out presents for everyone this year.
Moreover, there will be significant retail activity as shoppers cash in those gift cards this week.
Economic forecasts for 2022 are coming fast and furious.
It seems that many feel the Omicron variant will push economic growth out into the later quarters and that inflation may not be stemmed until we get into 2023.
The one important thing, however, is that economic growth is
forecast for next year, which should mean that company earnings will increase.
One sign people are making an effort to return to some sense of normal was the release of the latest Spiderman movie topping $1 billion in sales.
A lot of people decided to go to movie theatres.
All was not perfect though as the remake of West Side Story had a very poor showing.
Obviously, Marvel has found the sweet spot as far as the public’s taste is concerned.
Things are far from back to normal though as bowl games are being canceled and professional league games are being postponed or played with limited rosters.
It appears though that we are moving toward shorter quarantine periods and much more self-testing to help in this process.
As we wrap up the year I have to own that I thought we would have a correction in the last quarter followed by a surge in the markets.
We definitely got the surge, but there was no correction and anyone pointing to the minor setbacks is not acknowledging the fact that we are at record levels. This is a perfect example of letting things ride and getting quite the reward.
The important factor though is that you were invested all along. Here is hoping that was you in 2021.
