Another week and yet more records and it’s not limited to the indexes and averages. Bitcoin climbed above $65,000 and seems no stop is in sight.
With Nvidia the lead dog, the sled keeps moving.
That is not to say there are no warning signals.
We have all the Middle East geopolitical problems and the war in Ukraine.
China’s economy is far from what it was a year ago.
We slowed inflation, but it still has an impact and we have an election year.
Did I mention that the kicking the can down the road on the budget battle has not been resolved?
Jay Powell will testify before Congress this week and I can’t see that moving the markets.
He will not tip his hand as to whether the Fed will ever lower rates.
It will be the old story of letting the data guide the Fed’s decision.
We will get employment numbers Friday.
It appears we will have a break for a bit on all the concern over the economy.
Unemployment is low and earnings reports are better than expected.
That is not to say that the consumer is not feeling the pinch of two and one half years of significant rises in costs.
Moreover, oil prices have moved back up making the visit to the pump more expensive.
I still don’t see how a recession could be in the works.
We did get a warning sign from the commercial real estate market with NY Community Bank getting hit significantly due to their exposure to loans on office space.
Nothing is ever perfect.
The European Union has sued Apple for over a Billion dollars due to unfair trade practices with Apple Music. The EU seems to have all big companies from the U.S. in their sights.
Speaking of lawsuits, Elon Musk is suing Sam Altman and Open AI over his concern that Google and Microsoft are keeping the firm from being open to the world.
It would seem to have some merit with Microsoft having a 49% ownership.
Elon is starting to be the one person who is trying to keep ethics alive in this free market economy.
With so many conglomerates splitting up as evidenced by General Electric, we are seeing a reversal by Boeing.
It is seeking to take back Spirit Aerospace which used to be a subsidiary that it spun off.
The recent events with a door flying off a plane may have been the last straw.
A little closer inspection of quality control was decided as the best course of action for the future.
So here we are headed into spring and spring break.
We are about to move to daylight savings time and the wildflowers are blooming.
St Patty’s day is around the corner.
Just hard for me to be anything but hopeful.
I will say all the yard work is putting a damper on any fun time relaxation for a while.
Nothing is perfect as I have detailed previously, so I will make the best of an already good situation.
