International markets had a strong showing during October, even after data released by the US Federal Reserve showing unemployment numbers back at their pre-covid levels of around 3.5%, this continues to point toward them taking a more hawkish tone. US Indices were strong as the Dow closed out the month up by almost 14%, the S&P 500 up by almost 8%, and the Nasdaq up just 4%. Although most US companies have now reported earnings, with approximately 69% beating earnings forecasts, we did see the tech sector take some serious pain on an individual stock basis, with Facebooks parent company losing over 30%, even as Mark Zuckerberg indicated there will be increased spend in developing the metaverse. Amazon also pulled back nearly 10%, and on the flip side, Apple had an 11% increase. From an economic perspective, CPI for September was worse than the market expected, forecast consensus was for a YoY increase of 8.1%, decreasing from the previous reading of 8.3%, but it came in at 8.2%. Core CPI also surprised on the upside coming in at 6.6%, versus the expected 6.3% and consensus of 6.5%. The rate hikes are starting to take effect as consumer spending is slowing […]
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