Elections
Oh man! We are seeing so many ads on TV about someone running for office, that I’m getting sick to my stomach! The worst part is that they have gone from the “Hi, I’m so and so and this is what I will do for you if elected” to “That other guy is a schmuck!” I think it should be illegal to make an ad where one party talks about the other. It’s certainly not helpful for deciding who to vote for!
The first ad you see, candidate A says candidate B is going to do something bad. The next ad has candidate B saying that candidate A is going to do something bad. So I guess, neither is really going to do anything good? That’s what I am getting out of it.
Even the claims that people make are totally impossible. “Vote for me and your grocery prices will go down!” Really? One person is going to end the war, bring the gas prices down, convince grocery stores to lower their prices? Get real! A more honest approach would be to say “This is what I want to work toward, and if we can get enough support, then we can make these things happen.” But that would require that politicians be honest. But if they are honest, would anybody vote for them?
Anyway, I can’t wait for it to be over. I’ll be casting my vote on November 3rd, and I already know how I’m going to vote, so no trash ad is going to change my mind at this point. I just hope that winner accept with grace and losers accept the same way. I don’t want to see any fist fights over the results. If this take the country in a whole new direction, then so beit.
Interest rates
Today, the FOMC is meeting to determine what will be the new interest rate decision. My guess is that they will have seen little change since the first raise last month, and will just take a wait and see position. I’m pretty sure that’s what most people expect at this point. To be honest, I think we need another interest rates hike, because inflation is just too high. But I know that it creates a shock in the stock market when that happens. So I expect that they will hold off. But we’ll get the announcement tomorrow afternoon.
Earning Season
We are in the middle, or maybe getting close to the end of the earning season. This is not the time when we get earnings, but when the companies report their earnings, and the stock market reacts. So far, at least for me, most of the reaction has been positive. Past results and future expectations seem to be generally good.
The Economy
Politicians keep saying the economy is doing great, while the man on the street says that it stinks. Why is that? We are really talking about two different economies here. The personal economy seems bad because people can’t afford the gas and groceries. But the politicians are looking at the country’s economy which is seeing improvements. It’s just that this improvement doesn’t trickle down to us little people.
Now, we all know that the president isn’t good with numbers. He keeps talking about Trillions of dollars coming into the country, and it’s probably more like billions. But it is at least something. But sometimes it seems that we are our own worst enemy. We want the economy to grow but at the same time we are separating ourselves from the other countries which our relationship would help it grow. I don’t get it.
The War Zone
I don’t know what is going on in the Middle East. It seems the news is just not reporting on it much anymore. They are more focused on the elections. I think that Iran is still striking oil vessels but I don’t have any idea of what the US response is. All I hear is “wait till after the Midterms.” That seems counter productive to me as well. My feeling is, if you can fix it, then fix it. To be honest, I think I see a lot of finger pointing coming soon.
There was an election in Israel this week. I don’t know the results of it yet. They may have a new Prime Minister soon, and that will really throw a wrench in everything. It may be a good wrench, but it could go either way. We’ll just have to see what happens. If our president loses his good buddy over there, well… who knows?
My Stock Market Results
I know that this is what I was supposed to be reporting here, but it seems so insignificant with all that is going on. I am up on the overall portfolio but still not back to pre-war days. Kind of like everything else! My two new ETFs are going in and out of the red on an hourly basis. The Tech stocks were going crazy yesterday, with AMD going up 25 dollars, and others following suit. Other stocks dropped of course, so while I’m up about 10% I don’t know if it will hold through today.
I noticed that Google and Amazon are starting to come back. They have been dropping for the last week or two. So that’s a good sign. I guess they had a good earnings meeting. Pharma has been all over the place but I am worried about the food businesses. They seem to continue to struggle. Real Estate is also hurting lately, though not in crash territory.
I don’t know what will happen with the data center build out. Seems like all the political ads are pointing out that it’s a bad thing, yet they all say the other person is actively pursuing them. They spit out the words “data center” like it leaves a bad taste in their mouth, and yet they all seem to be in favor of them. They just know that the public is not so they use it as a talking point. I say, let’s just go with Elon’s plan and put them in space. Maybe on the moon or Mars.
I guess we just wait
So we’ll see what the elections in Israel did, and we’ll see what our elections do. Hopefully we will get things back on track but I am afraid we’ll see even further division. I just want congress to do their job. That’s all. Quit fighting each other for credit and just make it happen. We need a big turnaround, whoever wins.
