Broken Losing Streak and Bad Starts vs. Bad Finishes

Slight Reversal: Last week, major US market indices finished higher, disrupting three straight weeks of losses. A fresh set of economic data was released and gave investors the sense that the Fed need not tackle inflation with previously anticipated aggression, causing something of a rally.

No Rest for the Weary: Maersk, the world’s number one shipping company, has remarked that numerous variables contributing to inflationary pressures are unlikely to abate in the short term. The cost of shipping goods since the start of the pandemic, thus far, has expanded by 25-30%.

Bad Starts vs. Bad Finishes: We encountered this chart last week that proposed a notable pattern. Below you will see the fifteen worst starts to the year for equities. Each blue bar shows how bad the performance of equities was for the first half of that year. The red bar shows how those equity markets then performed for the remainder of the year. The results are what you might call “scattered.”

Which Would you Rather: Fidelity recently conducted a survey with 1,000 adults to better evaluate the financial paralysis that has been noted in the younger generation. It turns out that one-quarter of the participants would rather talk to their ex for an hour than draft a budget. Which would you rather? Okay. What if we made it just half an hour?

Amazon Losing Steam: Despite the whiplash of unemployment rates in recent years, an indication of a near-future labor shortage was leaked from internal research conducted at Amazon. It alleges they could deplete the available US labor as soon as 2024 if business continues as usual. You can read more about it in the article released by Vox here.