August 30, 2021
Good morning,
Friday’s Jackson Hole messaging was obviously well received by the markets. There was no news to speak of in the speech but the fear of a hawkish surprise was dispelled. It’s axiomatic to the markets: uncertainty removed -> market up. The S&P 500 Index was up .87% on the day Friday and 1.52% on the week. Reversing the prior week’s worse-than-the-S&P behavior, most indexes not named S&P did much better last week. International (ACWI) was up 2.1%, NASDAQ +2.8%, Russell 2000 +5.1%, EM +4.29%. Last week seemed to mark the end to the stealthy correction we talked about last Monday, and it was another victory lap for the JBTD crowd (Just Buy The Dip).
This week’s focus for the market is going to be on the Friday payroll figure. As it is the last unofficial week of the summer leading into a holiday weekend, I wouldn’t be surprised to see holiday like light volume all week. Let’s see.
Be well,
Mike