It has been a hot and ugly August. The S&P 500 has lost 4% for the month.
Last week, at least, was not a loss for the first time in nearly a month.
It was hard to explain as Fed Chair Powell didn’t say anything controversial in his speech at Jackson Hole.
Nvidia provided an earnings report that was far greater than expected and was rewarded with a yawn by the market.
Retail is coming to the realization that theft is a real problem.
You can call it whatever you want but shoplifting is making it difficult for retailers.
The losses due to theft are staggering. There is no easy solution as long as those who are caught are not prosecuted.
It can only cause a rise in prices to offset.
As if bricks and mortar wasn’t having enough problems from the pandemic, you have this.
I can truthfully say that outside of HEB, Home Depot, Academy and Walmart, I go online to order and have it delivered.
Worldwide, there are bright spots such as in Japan which has had over a 25% jump in its index.
It would seem that India would find some strength as companies look to an alternative to China.
The problem of course is finding enough workers that can do the job.
Not everything is sweat shop labor.
In the tech sector you have to find skilled workers with education.
It appears our government can’t help themselves from helping us.
Beyond challenging almost every merger which they then end up losing in court but at a cost to the companies.
We now have our government protecting us from credit card companies. The end game may be the elimination of rewards programs in the name of stopping the companies from charging 3% for use of the card to retailers.
The banking legislation several years ago has started to eliminate free checking. Where would we be without these elected officials protecting our interest?
We still have four days this week to turn this market around, but it just doesn’t seem to be an environment for positive equity moves.
Even great news by Nvidia couldn’t motivate investors, but at least it kept the indexes from losing ground last week.
For all the hand wringing, we are still ahead for the year and that may be the essence of where we find ourselves.
Nothing much is really bad, but it just is time for a pause as many take their profits off the table.
It would be another thing if earnings were poor across the board.
It appears there is just enough pessimism to keep that wall of worry in tack for a while.
