Good morning.
The phrase, “what have you done for me lately” works well when speaking about both sports and investments … as too much focus is placed on near-term results while medium- or long-term success is ignored.
This is true not only in professional football … where a coach who has taken his team to the playoffs for many years can be fired after one bad game … but also in investments … where a couple of down sessions bring on swarms of articles citing the end of the bull run based on a few days of declines. What is important is that even with today’s drop, the market is up around 1.5% in January … a figure that should have investors smiling.
A new Fed chair was announced … or at least nominated … who is a past governor with a history of being critical of the Fed in the past. What remains to be seen is how well this new captain can steer the ship … as icebergs certainly lie ahead … some of which were man-made.
Tariff talk picked up again overnight … as the U.S. plans to impose added costs on planes manufactured in Canada and sold here. At the same time there are reports that some in one province of Canada would like to carve out their territory and have it become part of the U.S.
For some reason, Canadian leaders are not happy with these moves (as the U.S. reportedly met with disenfranchised neighbors up north) and the tit-for-tat joint retaliation continues.
But tariffs have moved beyond trade … and are now threatened to punish countries for just … well … not being like us.
There is already an energy crisis in Cuba, but we turned up the thermostat a bit by authorizing added tariffs on goods of any country that supplies needed oil to Cuba.
According to Bloomberg, Cubs sees this move as an aggressive economic attack.
Which, frankly, it is.
Changing topics, the song, “Baby It’s Cold Outside” was written by Frank Loesser way back in 1944 … and if it was sung today in many parts of the U.S. it might be through chattering teeth … as the last article below mentions collapse of the polar vortex … and points out cold weather … very cold weather … might be with us here in Pennsylvania until early spring. Yikes!
As a result, natural gas prices have skyrocketed and since energy companies announced that some homeowners will not have their rates rise … this number is very few … which brings to mind a statement made famous in Matthew 22:14 …
“… many are cold, few are chosen.”
Have a great day,
Joseph G. Witthohn, CFA
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