Last week the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock-index posted its best weekly gain of the year.
That came despite the fact that Facebook, aka Meta, was taken out to the wood shed losing over 25% of its value in one day.
That came after a poorer than expected earnings report and acknowledgement that the restrictions by Apple to protect privacy would hurt advertising revenues.
What Meta lost in one day is more capital than the combination of some of the biggest high tech companies. On the other hand, Google, aka Alphabet, and Amazon were rewarded for better-than-expected earnings reports.
All though was not well for fellow FAANG stock Netflix posting earnings concerns. That brings us to this second week of sorts of February and we find some of the biggest members of FAANG apparently fighting over who will take over Peloton.
I think the logical choice would be Apple as this would just be another device in their health aspect of their products. I am not sure there is a long runway for at-home exercise. It appears that the general public has enough of isolation and is back to dining out and visiting the local gym.
We are such social animals that I think our experiment with isolation has been put to bed. While I am a Baby Boomer there are those in my family much younger who would sit for days in front of a screen playing electronic games.
One thing was certain last week was that the jobs report came in with about three times the number of jobs added over what was expected. That is driving fears this week that the report on inflation will be close to 8%.
What that tells you though is that those who were trumpeting Modern Monetary Theory as a viable means of dealing with economy are keeping quiet now.
The thought that you could just print all the money you want and there would be no problems are finally getting taken to task. It was even noted last week by John Hopkins in a research report that the measures to restrict contact with others did little to thwart the spread of COVID.
This is why it is important to continue to pursue research. We don’t want to get stuck in past traditions that aren’t healthy for us. We also don’t want to grab the first bit of data and ascribe factual status to initial studies.
Einstein was quick to point out that science is the art of questioning almost everything. That is not to say that you don’t pay attention, but always question the basis. This is essential in your financial planning.
Never forget that someone is always playing on your fears to sell you something that can easily separate you from your savings.
That however should not keep you from trying to figure out the next trend. Nothing stays the same but change and change is where opportunity lies.
