Good morning. Major indexes are up as we enter “Fed week,” with most expecting the Fed to pause at the meeting that concludes Wednesday. One question on everyone’s mind is whether the new chair replacement for the retiring Jay Powell will be announced before the meeting. For those keeping score, there are two more gatherings after this before the chairman’s departure in May. The government has a funding deadline the end of this week and the explosive situation in Minneapolis has some lawmakers saying they will not approve the budget due to funding associated with ICE … which would result in a “partial shutdown.” We’ll hear more about this later in the week as the January 30 deadline is nearing but the situation doesn’t look good right now. We recently placed or threatened additional tariffs on China and Canada … so how did these countries reacting? By circumventing the U.S. and trying to make trade deals with each other … which infuriated the President … to such an degree that extra tariffs were considered, leading Canada to back away from its announced plan to have free trade with China. You may not have noticed but the price of silver jumped in recent days (continuing last year’s advance) and gold crossed $5,000/ounce for the first time. Gold is seen as a buffer against geopolitical risk … which right now is showing up in spades … but let’s see if these prices remain where they are. I also read recently that more employees are returning to the office … but what many workers are doing is showing up, chatting with friends, drinking coffee … and then going home to actually do work. It seems the office, for many, has become a social club with wi-fi. On a final note, we are heading towards the Super Bowl … and the first couple of months of the year is when we typically see the best sales on televisions … so I supplied a link below. The list is eye-opening … as most TVs today … unlike many viewers, perhaps … as “smart” … and can easily broadcast streaming channels. But what is most exciting are the prices listed. I remember when I bought my first “big screen” TV … it had a 55” screen, was rather large, and cost me $2300. In the included list today is a 65” quality television at 1/10 of that price. While it is easy to look at certain goods and complain about higher prices, there are other items for which the cost has substantially actually come down … so there is a trade-off. It seems inflation didn’t completely disappear … … it just changed outfits. Have a great day, Joseph G. Witthohn, CFA Have any questions? Please contact info@teamemerald.com
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