Dear valued client,
Markets started the week in mixed fashion and ended with gains of roughly 0.5% amid political turnover both on the Canadian and American side of the border. Canadian House Speaker Anthony Rota stepped down from his position after mistakenly inviting and honoring a former SS Nazi in the House of Commons last week. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress voted to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy after he made a spending deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. This development in particular created uncertainty in the markets, especially in regards to future fiscal policy and government spending.
This week marked the beginning of Q4 of the calendar year. Here’s a recap of how markets performed in the first three quarters of 2023:
Dow Jones: + 1.12%
S&P 500: + 12.13%
NASDAQ: + 27.27%
TSX: + 0.8%
U.S. September employment figures released today indicate the labor market is still tight as it added 336,000 new jobs – nearly double economists’ forecasts. News like this implies interest rates will likely stay higher for longer because, as explained previously, central bankers are (paradoxically) hoping for unemployment to increase – which would have an alleviating effect on inflation.
Sam Bankman-Fried (remember him?) was in court this week to begin the criminal trial that will determine whether the former FTX CEO committed massive fraud while building his now collapsed $32 billion crypto empire. The charges, which include fraud and conspiracy, carry a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison. SBF’s defense attorneys’ arguments so far revolve around the defendant simply following FTX’s lawyers’ advice, not having criminal intent, and pinning blame on Caroline Ellison – former girlfriend and CEO of Alameda Research (risky crypto trading firm). In other words, fraud was committed, but it wasn’t his fault. We will see how the jury evaluates the presented evidence over the next several weeks.
I’d like to close with a quote from Seneca on the value of time;
“Were all the geniuses of history to focus on this single theme, they could never fully express their bafflement at the darkness of the human mind. No person would give up even an inch of their estate, and the slightest dispute with a neighbor can mean hell to pay; yet we easily let others encroach on our lives – worse, we often pave the way for those who will take it over. No person hands out their money to passersby, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives? We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers.”
Time = money. Do you use yours wisely?
Have a terrific weekend,
PW
