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The last full trading week of November ended in mixed results. The gains in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were found in just a few underlying sectors with Consumer Discretionary and Information Technology being the largest winners. There was a nearly 5% decline in oil prices last week as well. This was due mainly to a surprise in the estimate of inventories as well as President Biden and the Chinese leader saying they were going to release some of the oil reserve inventories. In other political news, President Biden signed the $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Act and the House passed the “Build Back Better” Act coming in at $1.75 Trillion. However, the Congressional Budget Office reported the “Build Back Better” Act would add an additional $160 billion to the deficit with a $750 billion gap in the first 5 years. In economic news, the most interesting headline was the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index reporting its lowest reading in decades as it fell to 66.8 in November. This index is a monthly survey that gathers information on American consumer expectations regarding the overall economy. We hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving Holiday. We all have things to be thankful for and from Leap Wealth, we are thankful for the trust our clients have placed in us.

If you haven’t felt it yet, you will. Inflation is here. The 5-week winning streak of the Major Market Indices gets broken. The only positive performer was the Emerging Markets index after two weeks of losses itself. Most of the focus last week was on the economic reports regarding inflation. The Producer Price Index (measures the average change in sale prices for the entire domestic market of raw goods and services) rose 8.6% from last year, which shocked many analysts. That was followed up by a 6.2% increase in the Consumer Price Index (the average change in sale prices for the domestic market of raw goods and services). The FedWatch Tool changed after the month of October, speculating a rate hike in June of next year and another in December. Treasury yield curves are signaling a potential recession in the bond market. Contact us to learn how we navigate these economic conditions to help you Advance and Protect your wealth.

Off to the races again with more new ALL-TIME HIGHS adding to this years’ gains. Last week there were multiple economic reports, earnings releases, and the FOMC meeting. The ISM Services Index came in at 60.8%, although below the prior month, it was ahead of the estimated amount. The running theme is supply chain strain, and how it is impacting both manufacturing’s as well as service sectors. There is a growth in the backlog of orders as inventories stay low. Jerome Powell led the FOMC conference stating the Fed will reduce the monthly net asset purchasing of $15billion per month. This represents a move away from stimulating the markets. They do not plan to raise interest rates anytime soon and expect the bottleneck in supply to continue into next year. At Leap Wealth, we regularly monitor the overall markets, economy, and the direction of those while implementing our Advance and Protect investment strategies. To learn more, contact us today.

October was good for most of the major indices, as many achieved new all-time highs. The NASDAQ led with an increase of 2.7% for the month. Consumer Discretionary led the sectors. Small-Cap Value was the main loser for the week for style boxes where returns varied across all nine styles. Earnings reports began last week as contributing to the gains with more coming this week. The rolling 12-month Home Price Index represented an all-time high, however, new home price sales continued to grow to new highs. Wages have increased by 3.7%, showing that employers are having difficulty filling jobs. Our motto at Leap Wealth Management is to Advance and Protect. Contact us today to learn more.

The market really lit up last week with all five indices closing higher and the S&P500 logging its third consecutive week of gains. Earnings season has begun and is certainly having an impact on results. Supply Chains and labor shortages are impacting the economy as well. There is a bottleneck of shipping containers on the coasts. Los Angeles, the largest port in the US, has a backlog of more than 200,000 shipping containers creating supply chain issues. The longer this last, the more likely we will see higher inflation. Earnings reports will continue this week as we end the month of October and those economic reports will likely set the tone for the last two months of 2021. Stay Safe and have a Happy Halloween!

The markets saw renewed life last week as all five major markets added green. Much like the prior week, the 5-day trading session opened to a weak start with the greatest losses taking place on Monday. However, as the sessions continued, the returns improved with Thursday seeing the greatest gains which also represented the bulk of the weekly return. The Labor Department recorded a record of 4.3 million people which is about 2.9% of the entire workforce quit in August. Tuesday’s JOLTS report saw a slight reduction in the national job openings as the number dropped slightly to 10.4 million in August from the revised July reading of 11.1 million. Wednesday held the much-anticipated Consumer Price Index report. September’s monthly CPI reading came in at 0.4%. While the monthly reading was mostly lower than in recent months, it was the 12-month number that caught analysts’ attention coming at 5.4%. This marked the highest reading for the annual report since 1991. Nevertheless, the markets appeared to overlook the inflation concerns as 10 of the 11 sectors closed higher. At Leap Wealth, we leverage sophisticated software and strategies normally reserved for the ultra-wealthy and large institutions. We bring these capabilities to our wealth management clients. To learn more, contact us at www.leapwealth.com and see how we can serve you.