What a week it was and we didn’t seem to even blink an eye.
Hurricane Helene laid waste to the Southeast US, the war escalated in the Middle East, the employment report came in better than expected, the dock workers strike was put off till after the first of the year as was the budget fight.
With all that, the averages and indexes were able to gain a bit of ground.
Moreover, it seems less likely the Federal Reserve will need to cut rates significantly more the rest of the year as we seem to have avoided a recession.
I am not sure what a soft landing actually is these days.
Helene had no impact on those of us in Texas, but it had a significant impact to others.
Sort of a not in my backyard then not a problem for me.
We live in a zero sum world and everything impacts us we just don’t see it all the time.
I was amazed that the dock workers strike got people on social media frantic and there was another run on toilet paper for no reason.
I am grateful at times like this that being so old I miss all of this essential information and hysteria.
We will get bank earnings at the end of this week, which means the next quarterly earnings reports on just around the corner.
I am so far behind; I am still double checking my tax return for 2022 that I will file next week.
While there is so much that could impact the market at each and every turn, we seem to move past most of it.
Maybe there is so much that it cancels each other out.
Not sure why we seem to ignore much that is going on around us.
It may be that any thought of evaluating economic news is washed away by deluge of political ads and news reports.
Myabe it is our infatuation with football.
We will never know the answer, but it does intrigue me.
Then you get comedy shows that ask relevant current events questions to people on the street and they have no clue.
I guess it isn’t information of interest on YouTube and Instagram.
We also will get another measure of CPI soon, along with GDP.
It seems these measures all come within bounds that are palatable to most without knee-jerk reactions like earlier this summer.
We are almost though October and the Holiday season is just around the corner.
The only thing scary appears to be Halloween.
More analysts are forecasting a positive end to 2023.
It has been a very rewarding year for your retirement account.
My account is growing faster than my mandatory withdrawals can keep up with.
It is amazing what can happen.
As you know from reading this column over the last several years, I try to remain optimistic while being realistic.
I expected a significant pullback in the market and it has not come.
There are so many elements active currently that could severely rock this market.
We, however, have moved forward on the back of the latest new technology trend which is AI.
Maybe those of us old enough to remember harder times are just jaded.
Maybe this time will be different.
I try not to laugh when writing such.
At least enjoy the good times.
