The articles below offer general information, opinions, and forecasts and should not be considered advice.
October 2021 – By Bob Veres
The runup to Halloween is pumpkin season, the season of jack-o’-lanterns, pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice lattes (for those who are into that sort of thing). But did you know that pumpkins are native to the New World, and were completely unknown outside the Americas until the late 1500s? Or that pumpkins are actually a fruit, related to winter squash, cucumbers and melons?
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October 2021 – Dan Zalipski, CFA®
The market has been adrift since Labor Day, with the major indices churning and reacting to the day-to-day headlines. The debt ceiling is suddenly an issue again, the Delta wave dragged the recovery, consumer prices are on the rise, the labor shortage persists, as does the supply chain issues outlined in our previous Market Minute. There’s a lot of negatives swirling out there that we’re all aware of. Therein lies the silver lining; when we are all worried about the same concerns, it’s likely already reflected in the market.
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October 2021 – Scott Rosenquist, CFA®
The global supply chain continues to show signs of strain as shortages of labor, transportation, and storage coincide with strong demand for goods going into the holiday season. The ports in California have a record number of ships waiting to unload while there are not enough truck drivers to move the containers. Covid-related shutdowns to factories across the globe has limited the production of important components such as semiconductor chips. The auto industry has lost production this year due to the chip shortage. All these issues highlight the importance of supply chains to the economy.
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September 2021 – Daniel Zalipski, CFA®
They say the markets climb a wall of worry, and this past quarter has been no exception. It is somewhat natural for investors to be on the lookout for the next event that could trigger a dramatic sell-off, even more so when the markets are bouncing near all-time highs. This practice seems to exaggerate the longer the broad market climbs higher without a decent pullback. The longer this type of environment persists, the louder the warnings of selloffs and corrections will get. Will the delta variant send us into a tailspin, or perhaps the proposed tax increases will spook the markets, or will the Fed send us lower?
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