MARKET RECAP

Another incredible week as US stocks rose by 4.16% and are now up 8.81% for the month; this is in the face of what is almost certainly another 0.75% increase in the fed-funds rate this week. Or maybe the market is looking ahead to what often is a market rally after the midterm elections. According to the Stock Traders Almanac, the Dow has averaged a gain of 46.8% since 1914 from the midterm low to the pre-election year high. But that metric will undoubtedly be tested by a Fed focused on slowing the economy until inflation fades.

The Dow is up 14.4% for the month, and assuming nothing crazy on Halloween, will turn in its best performance since January of 1976.

Except for Apple, big tech missed on earnings. Microsoft scraped by with a small beat, but disappointed investors with its outlook, Alphabet’s revenue fell short in the advertising category, and Meta missed on overall sales.

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MARKET RECAP

Stocks managed to advance by 1.63% for the week. The market was strong at the beginning of the week on another hope that the Fed will pivot sooner rather than later, but as that became apparent that was more hope than real, the market fell hard at the end of the week.

Employers added 263,000 jobs in September, less than the 315,000 added in August and lower than the six-month average of 400,000, but more than the consensus estimate. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5% from 3.7%, matching a half-century low. The labor force participation rate declined. The stronger than expected report sparked another sell-off in the markets, worried that the slowdown in forthcoming interest rate increases in now further away. The S&P dropped by 2.8% and the Nasdaq fell by 3.8%.

Cracks continue to appear in the economy. AMD, Samsung, and Micron Technology have all issued weak forecasts.

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MARKET RECAP

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