Seeking Alpha (October 19)
“The benchmark S&P 500 index (SP500) on Friday notched a six-week win streak, its longest weekly advance of 2024. It also notched its 46th and 47th record close of the year. Meanwhile, it was a historic week for the venerable Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI). The blue-chip gauge surpassed the 43,000 points mark for the first time ever while posting its 37th through 40th record close of the year.”
Tags: 2024, Advance, Benchmark, Blue-chip, Dow Jones, First time, Historic week, Record close, S&P 500, Surpassed, Win streak
Wall Street Journal (October 18)
In his first term, “Donald Trump resurrected tariffs as a tool of economic diplomacy.” His relatively strategic use of tariffs resulted in “a world trading system with a bit more friction, but it remained largely intact.” If re-elected, Trump’s threatens to “radically remake world trade” with the blanket use of tariffs. Aside from higher prices in the U.S., “the outcome could be anything from an all-out trade war, to a new trading system among U.S. allies united by their collective frustration with China.”
Tags: China
The Guardian (October 17)
“Why is Germany shooting its own stagnating economy in the foot?” As Europe awakens to the need to increase competitiveness, Germany’s opposition to the merger of UniCredit and Commerzbank “smacks of pure protectionism.” The potential merger “makes obvious sense” from a commercial perspective and would not “normally elicit much interest.” From the broader “European perspective, a tie-up is clearly attractive too. Policymakers have long bemoaned that while Europe may have a single currency, it lacks a single financial system.”
Institutional Investor (October 16)
“Other assets don’t hold a candle to Bitcoin’s long-term performance — not gold, not silver, not the S&P 500. Remarkably, the 95th percentile of performance for a four-year hold period for each of these assets underperformed the 5th percentile four-year hold period for Bitcoin.” U.S. pensions need to adopt “a strategic approach to invest in Bitcoin and improve plans’ risk-return profile and funding status.”
Tags: Funding status
Bloomberg (October 15)
“Europe’s saga has taken a new turn. At its last meeting, the European Central Bank seemed in no hurry to cut rates further. Now expectation has shifted to virtual certainty that a rate cut is coming. Indeed, market participants expect the ECB to cut rates in almost perfect synchronization with the Federal Reserve.”
Tags: Certainty, ECB, Europe, Expectation, Fed, Market participants, Rate cut, Saga, Synchronization
Reuters (October 15)
“Global investor optimism posted its biggest jump since June 2020 in October due to Federal Reserve rate cuts, stimulus pledges from China and expectations of a soft landing for the U.S. economy,” according to a recent Bank of America survey of fund managers.
Investment Week (October 14)
“Environmental, social and governance considerations among private investors have continued to fall for the third year in a row amid a declining love for ESG.” The annual ESG Attitudes Tracker found that “the percentage of respondents… who claimed they consider ESG when investing dropped to 48%, down from 53% in 2023, 60% in 2022 and 66% in 2021.” Lackluster performance in the ESG sector appears to be “the core reason” for the waning enthusiasm.
Tags: Attitudes Tracker, Declining love, Dropped, ESG, Fall, Investors, Lackluster, Performance, Respondents, Waning enthusiasm
Washington Post (October 12)
“A second catastrophic hurricane in as many weeks has forced the U.S. government to grapple with a harsh reality: Climate calamities are becoming more frequent, deadly and costly in a country already facing massive fiscal challenges.” With the ballooning U.S. national debt already exceeding $35 trillion, “budget experts agree that climate change threatens to add to these woes, harming economic output while forcing the government to spend more, and generate less, as it grapples with the consequences of dangerous emissions.”
Tags: $35 trillion, Calamities, Catastrophic, Climate change, Costly, Deadly, Economic output, Fiscal challenges, Frequent, Government, Grapple, Harsh, Hurricane, National debt, U.S.
Fortune (October 11)
“Famed economist Ed Yardeni said earlier this year the Federal Reserve would be ‘one and done’ when it comes to rate cuts—announcing one reduction and leaving it at that.” Following the “unexpected 50-basis-point (bps) cut in September—double the 25 bps widely expected by the Street—Yardeni is now convinced Fed chairman Jerome Powell won’t be lowering any further.”
Tags: Lowering
Washington Post (October 10)
“By just about every measure, the U.S. economy is in good shape. Growth is strong. Unemployment is low. Inflation is back down. More important, many Americans are getting sizable pay raises, and middle-class wealth has surged to record levels.” And yet the lingering effects of inflation seem to have blinded many to the fact that “we are living through one of the best economic years of many people’s lifetimes.”
Tags: Best, Economy, Growth, Inflation, Lingering, Middle class, Pay raises, Record levels, Strong, Surged, U.S., Unemployment, Wealth
