ISMD News and Press, Inspire Small/Mid Cap Impact From 10/21/22

Summary It was a good week for jobless claims as the seasonally adjusted number fell 12K to 214K versus last week’s downward revision to 226K. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, claims were also lower as might be expected for the current week of the year. As we highlig...

Summary Initial claims for regular state unemployment insurance fell by 12,000 for the week ending October 15th, coming in at 214,000. When measured as a percentage of nonfarm payrolls, claims came in at 0.136 percent for September, down from 0.160 in August but above the record l...

Summary A small equity market bounce over the last week didn’t cause any major changes in investor sentiment, at least based on the weekly AAII numbers released this morning. The latest data from AAII showed 22.6% of survey respondents reported as bullish versus 20.4% the w...

Summary The S&P 500 remains supported along its June lows, as buyers appeared to stanch further selling. However, the price action has not been resolved. We anticipate that the market has already priced in a mild-to-moderate recession. But, we explain why the Fed may not be fi...

Summary According to the most recent figures, US after-tax corporate profitability reached its highest share of GDP in nearly 70 years. According to a recent paper, falling borrowing costs and tax expenses have resulted in as much as one third of the increase in aggregate US corpo...

Summary As I've argued in recent posts, there's plenty of evidence to suggest the Fed has already tightened by enough to bring inflation down. The dollar is super-strong, real yields have risen sharply, the yield curve is inverted, commodity prices are plunging, and the housing ma...

Summary The US National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), designed to gauge market conditions, fell to 38 in October from 46 in September, now 50% lower than it was six months ago (below 50 is considered negative), and the largest year over ye...

Summary Persistent inflation spurred the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively in the third quarter, with 0.75% hikes in both July and September. Earnings estimates for equities had continued to climb during the early part of the year and only started to moderate...

Summary October flash PMI data will provide much needed insights into the risk of some of the world's major economies falling into recession. Falling or near-stalled output was seen across the four largest developed economies - the 'G4'. Only Japan recorded expansion, and even her...

Summary How far will policy rates need to go to tame inflation and is a recession imminent? Until central banks see a significant decline in wage growth, they’re likely to keep conditions tighter for longer. There’s evidence that conditions may continue to suppor...