Market Memo

December 2021 – Dan Zalipski, CFA®

The last several weeks have been volatile with a series of headlines moving the markets.  The day after Thanksgiving, while many Americans were out shopping for the holidays, word of the new COVID variant Omicron was announced.  Carrying more mutations and being more transmissible than the Delta variant, the Omicron variant was flagged as being able to potentially evade protection from the current lineup of COVID vaccines, sending the market lower while the world waited for more data.  Fortunately, it appears that the current vaccines and antiviral medications will help reduce the worst-case scenarios, but an increase in break-thru infections is possible.  Investors expect consumers will curb their behavior in the weeks ahead in response to Omicron.  Restaurants are already beginning to see a decline in patrons, and numerous professional sporting events have already been postponed.  Similar to the Delta wave, consumers will likely reduce their activity regardless of what the government suggests.

Here at Vantage, we believe in Investing in Kindness. We talk a lot about serving our clients and serving each other, but we want to take our company values of integrity and teamwork beyond that and ask ourselves, how else can we give back? Our team took the afternoon off on Tuesday, November 30th to volunteer our time at Feed my Starving Children to pack meals for kids living in poverty around the world. Our shift accomplished boxing 27,432 package meals and fed 75 kids for a year! We had so much fun throughout the packing process and felt grateful to have the opportunity to give back as a team!

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?