{"id":2724,"date":"2023-01-17T20:16:36","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T20:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/?p=2724"},"modified":"2023-01-17T20:16:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T20:16:36","slug":"markets-great-start-to-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/markets-great-start-to-2023","title":{"rendered":"Markets, Great Start to 2023!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s no secret the inflation numbers over the last several months are pointing in a desirable direction.\u00a0 Will this continue?? Let\u2019s hope so! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Stocks and bonds are wanting to price in a \u201csoft\u201d economic landing<\/strong>, meaning either no recession, or a very mild one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, off to the races!!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, the Dow jumped 2.01%, the S&P 500 2.71%, the Nasdaq 4.83%, and the Russell 2000 3.4%.\u00a0 Over the pond (with the dollar is reversing course), witnessed foreign stocks jumping 4.25% and emerging markets up 4.16%.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bond prices are also up YTD 2.74%, according to the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth and value stocks (both large and small cap) are moving up in tandem, which has not happened for quite some time! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corporate Profits?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week we heard from four of the large banks that beat earnings estimates, providing additional optimism.\u00a0 Now we\u2019ll hear a plethora of reports from various industries.\u00a0 What is said about forward projections will be very telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of now, consumers are spending more money on travel and leisure and less on \u201cproducts.\u201d\u00a0 Perhaps we are \u201cpurchased out\u201d from the pandemic.\u00a0 I certainly am in that camp as I\u2019m writing this blog while on a brief vacation.\u00a0 The island and hotels are packed with people from all over the world!\u00a0 Judging from my location, the global economy is humming along. Hmmm!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Profits, in my opinion, have to slow as wages have increased significantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can only hope the Federal Reserve members can navigate rates in the proper way so we do <\/em>in fact have a soft landing, without significant economic and market damage.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2022 EV Sales<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Wall Street Journal, EV sales last year accounted for 10% of new vehicles sold<\/strong>, which is the high watermark so far.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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In Europe, EV\u2019s accounted for 11% and in China, 19%.  The US is lagging behind, with EV sales accounting for approximately 5.8% in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesla was the largest seller in the US (not surprising), followed by Ford and Hyundai, and it’s affiliate, Kia.\u00a0 General Motors actually lost <\/strong>market share in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, US dealerships had record profits because of pricing power.  Most expect to sell more cars this year with less profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The automobile and housing industries are good barometers of economic activity because of the obvious size of respective purchases! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret the inflation numbers over the last several months are pointing in a desirable direction.\u00a0 Will this continue?? Let\u2019s hope so! Stocks and bonds are wanting to price in a \u201csoft\u201d economic landing, meaning either no recession, or a very mild one. So far, off to the races!! Last week, the Dow jumped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_statement":"","post_description":"","post_cta":"","post_button":"Read More","post_button_url":"","compliance_id":"","post_disclaimer":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2727,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724\/revisions\/2727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}