PUT IN WORK (8/14/2023)

The stock market experienced more downward movement last week despite good economic news. Indices fell throughout the week, with the S&P 500 (SPY) ending down 0.3% and the Nasdaq (QQQ) ending down a much harsher 1.5%, as is typical. This will be a relatively short issue, but there are still a few things we'd like to touch on.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) data came in on Thursday, and the results of such a report were slightly better than expected. Despite this, investors seemed worried that July's data came in slightly higher than June's, rising by 0.2% from 3% to 3.2%. In terms of CPI increases, this is the smallest monthly increase in CPI we've seen since August of 2021, which, although not the perfect outcome, is an improvement over the last several years. We're still not at the Fed's preferred level, but we're in significantly better shape than last year.

Investors grew even more concerned when Friday's July PPI data came in slightly hotter than expected. The 0.3% increase in said data was 0.1% higher than the general consensus of 0.2%. That, combined with this information coming in on a Friday, dragged the market down even further. Of course, all of this means it's almost certain that we'll see at least one more rate hike by the end of the year, but we all already knew that. Market volatility is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, but it's more than likely that we'll see another uptick in indices before the end of the year. Things are evidently getting better and better every month, and that's precisely the progress we want to see.

(12-month percentage change of the Consumer Price Index, July 2023. Information provided by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, chart provided by bls.gov.)

PORTFOLIO UPDATE

Our portfolio saw very little notable movement this last week. It fell along with the market, with some of our high fliers taking slightly heavier hits than others. Regardless, we plan to hold all currently owned stocks for the foreseeable future. There's still so much more potential for them to grow throughout the year, and we're excited to see that. As always, thank you for reading, and happy investing.