Market Minute

November 2021 – Scott Rosenquist, CFA®

Employment data for the month of October released by the Labor Department last Friday showed broad gains in hiring across sectors. Payrolls increased by 531,000 compared to estimates of 450,000. The previous two months were revised higher by a combined 235,000. Job gains continue to be concentrated in the leisure and hospitality sector (+164K) as the Delta wave of the pandemic recedes and the related unemployment programs expire. The unemployment rate declined to 4.6% from 4.8% in the previous month.

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? 

August 2021 – by Bob Veres

Despite the alarmist articles you might be reading in the press, most people won’t be affected very much, if at all, from the tax proposals that are percolating through Congress.  If the bills pass in their current form, then individuals who make less than $400,000 a year won’t see any increase in their ordinary income or capital gains rates, and husband and wife taxpayers with less than $7 million—or maybe $10 million—in net worth still won’t have to worry about paying federal estate taxes.