We are into February, one of the two worst performing months for equities markets historically.
Not that anything historically means much these days.
With the various markets up over 6% for the year, one would be tempted to tap out and enjoy the rest of the year.
There are analysts who predict that the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock-index will end close to where we are today, indicating that it may be a great year for traders as the markets gyrate and end up just where they started.
This week is of interest - beyond the Hallmark holiday - as the Consumer Price Index will be announced. Many hope that it will fall to below 6%.
The recent trend would seem to indicate such, but a measure showing strength in inflation could well mean a 50-basis- point rise in March.
I wish the Fed would get on with it and push the Fed Funds rate above 5% and we can proceed with our lives.
I’m weary of listening to Chairman Powell wax on endlessly, saying much to nothing.
I suppose it is better than all the attention to such things as shooting down weather balloons.
Being a frugal person, it does seem there has to be a more cost-effective method to remove these things from the sky, but as usual it will be yesterday’s forgotten news.
What won’t be forgotten is that many left Elon Musk on the dust heap with the debacle of the Twitter acquisition sending Tesla stock down to around $100.
It didn’t take the genius long and now Tesla is pushing $200.
It goes back to an old investing tool of getting into companies with great management.
It is just getting old listening to negative evaluations of what this man has done and will do.
The latest item of interest is artificial intelligence.
You can’t listen to a news report without someone espousing how this will change your life.
They jumped off the cliff last week with opinions that Microsoft’s advances with AI would allow them to finally make their search engine Bing relevant.
It sent Google stock spiraling down.
I will say that it does provide an interesting comparison of old-line tech companies like Microsoft and Apple continue to reinvent themselves to the reward of investors while the likes of Intel continue to slide south.
It is yet another tribute to great management.
Never bet against great company CEOs.
Another pathetic prognostication is that the markets go down when an AFC team wins the Super Bowl.
In today’s world it would seem you should feel secure in investing more.
We just need the Fed to get out of the headlines and let the economy show what free enterprise can do when government is in gridlock.
It seems to be coming together if we can filter out all the noise.
