What we’re reading (10/31)
“U.S. Prices, Wages Rise At Fastest Pace In Decades” (Wall Street Journal). “Consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in 30 years in September while workers saw their biggest compensation boosts in at least 20 years, according to new government data released Friday…[t]he reports point to a recovery caught between robust consumer demand and severe supply shortages, leading to a rapid uptick in inflation. They also put pressure on Federal Reserve officials as they prepare to meet next week.”
“Microsoft Surpasses Apple As The World's Most Valuable Company After The iPhone Maker's Stock Slips On Earnings Miss” (Insider). “The Windows software producer's market capitalization reached $2.46 trillion, higher than Apple's market cap of $2.43 trillion, making Microsoft the most valuable company. That title exchanged hands as Microsoft stock rose 1% to $327.50 Friday, while Apple dropped as much as 4% to $146.41 after the company late Thursday posted its first miss in quarterly revenue since 2018. Fiscal fourth-quarter sales of $83.4 billion were below expectations of $85 billion, hurt by supply-chain disruptions for semiconductors.”
“Slower S&P 500 Earnings Growth Is Not Bullish — No Matter What Some Stock Market ‘Experts’ Are Saying” (MarketWatch). “Some exuberant analysts are trying to put a bullish spin on the dramatic slowing in the S&P 500’s earnings per share growth rate projected for the next several quarters. They are wrong…the stock market is forward looking, its performance in a given quarter will to a far greater extent reflect projected earnings growth several quarters hence.”
“Merrick Garland Is Looking To Nail Some Corporate A**es To The Wall” (Dealbreaker). “We can’t be sure that Credit Suisse’s absolute inability to get out of its own way was the final straw. Maybe it was Deutsche Bank’s routine refusal to live up to its promises to stop breaking rules/laws/etc. Whatever it was, the Justice Department has had quite enough.”
“Women May Be Better Investors Than Men…” (New York Times). “Over a 10-year period, [Fidelity’s] female customers earned, on average, 0.4 percentage points more annually than their male counterparts. That may not seem like a lot, but over a few decades it can add up to tens of thousands of dollars or more…[t]he source of women’s superior returns is the way they trade. Or, rather, how they don’t. Female Fidelity customers bought and sold half as much as male customers. Vanguard saw similar patterns over the same decade-long period when examining workplace retirement accounts that it manages; at least 50 percent more men traded in them than women did every year during that time.”
