Out of Africa As far as movies go, the phrase “Out of Africa” is fantastic. But when related to a new and more dominant mutated strain of coronavirus? Not so much. News of the Omicron variant led to European Union countries and Israel curtailing travel from southern Africa. U.S. markets got spooked, with the Dow…

Vaccine mandate on hold The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced last week it would be suspending enforcement of the administration’s vaccine mandate for firms with 100 or more employees. The mandate — hailed by some as an effective tool to get more people vaccinated and by others as unconstitutional — is now in…

Consumers are priced out The headline pretty much says it all: “Latest inflation reading hits highest level in three decades.” Last week’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) report showed that prices jumped 6.2% between October 2020 andOctober 2021, outpacing expectations of a 5.9% increase. Consumers are definitely taking notice; the largest increases since the September report…

The Fed makes its move The much-telegraphed taper was announced after the Federal Reserve concluded its meeting lastWednesday. Markets didn’t seem to notice the very real fact that additional liquidity would be removed to the tune of $15 billion per month. Remember, the Fed was adding $120 billion total per month in quantitative easing; at…

Screeching to a halt! After growing by 6.3% in the first quarter and 6.7% in the second, gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed significantly during the third quarter. Expectations were initially at +3.5% but dropped as the day for reporting grew closer. We landed at 2.0% growth for Q3 — an overall increase, but a…

Markets return to record levels on the back of strong earnings Markets surged on strong earnings for the second week in a row. With no new surprises from FederalReserve speakers and scant economic data, there wasn’t much to hold markets down and we hit record highs again last week. Washington was also quiet as talks…

Earnings keeping supply chain and inflation concerns at bay — for now The third-quarter earnings season kicked off last week. After a few days of fretting about inflation, stagflation, labor shortages and supply chain worries, the markets decided enough was enough.Bolstered by better-than-expected earnings from the likes of Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, the…

More debt ceiling drama U.S. stock indexes soared higher after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said lawmakers had reached a deal on a short-term debt limit extension, which would put off a possible government default to December. The markets rallied on the news, erasing most of the previous week’s losses amid more volatility than we’ve…

Not there yet! The “actual” meaning of zero The week dawned with expectations for a vote on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the massive$3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” reconciliation bill. We’ve previously said that tying together the two bills —one of which seemed expensive but logical and is enjoying bipartisan appeal and the other…