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This morning I read that the US economy added 315,000 jobs in August extending a 20-month streak of jobs growth following the Covid recession of 2022 when 10M people lost their jobs. Over 525,000 jobs were added om July. Unemployment is solidly below 4%. This is good news, right? During the second quarter of 2022, over 75% of the companies making up the S&P 500 reported company profits above what they had been estimating. 70% of those same 500 companies have reported revenue higher than expected. Good news? This represents an earnings growth of over 13% from the same period in the previous year. This means that for the sixth straight quarter, year-over-year growth for the S&P 500 has been over 10%. More good news, right?

In July, the S&P 500 was up 9%, the DOW up over 2,069 pts (6.82%) and NASDQ up 12.4%. All markets are up 10 to 14% from their low points in mid-June but still down for the year. (1) Does this mean the Bear Market is over?

Yup, the S&P 500 is down 23% as of June 17, 2022 from the value December 31, 2021. Footnote, this applies only if all your account is invested in the S&P 500. Many of you have seen your account decline by less. See Footnote (1) One question from an old-school risk tolerance questionnaire would ask: “If your $100,000 investment portfolio goes does in value by $23,000, what would you do: Sell everything and wait until things get better? Sell some of my riskier investments and invest in more conservative investments? Do nothing? Start buying with any available cash?

Who Has the Most Influence Over Inflation? The President? Congress? Big Companies? Labor Unions? The Federal Reserve?