SMLE News and Press, Xtrackers S&P SmallCap 600 ESG ETF From 12/09/22

Summary Ford is trimming its workforce in its legacy divisions, where sales are sagging, but is hiring tech and engineering talent in its EV division, where sales are booming. 230,000 people filed an initial claim for unemployment insurance with their state unemployment offices in the w...

Summary This week’s sentiment reading was actually slightly higher rising 0.2 percentage points to 24.7%, a reading in the middle of this year’s range. Overall, sentiment continues to heavily favor bears with a 17.1 percentage point spread between bulls and bears. Conv...

Summary While it’s been a tough year, the Federal Reserve has done investors an enormous favor in terms of the attractiveness of a wide swath of fixed-income asset classes that today look a lot more attractive than a year ago. Jay Powell and the FOMC did raise the Fed funds rate ...

Summary Amid the crosscurrents, two themes have prevailed during the post-pandemic years, which lend some perspective to the macroeconomic roadmap ahead: namely, the bipolar swings in macro policy and the forces of economic normalization. After one of the worst years for fixed income as...

Summary The debate continues daily over the Fed’s future policy. My expectation is a 50-basis point hike in a few days and another one early next year. Once the gap between the quit rate and job openings rate closes to something close to normal, we expect two things to happen. ...

Summary Initial claims for regular state unemployment insurance rose by 4,000 for the week ending December 3rd, coming in at 230,000. Weekly initial claims have risen in seven of the last twelve weeks. Job cut announcements jumped to 76,835 in November versus 33,843 in October, the ...

Summary All news is bad news, as it seems like everyone wants to see a recession next year. While the yield curve inversion is a clear warning sign, it's not being accompanied by other important ingredients to an economic contraction. Sentiment is so horrible that the consensus is c...

Summary November 2022 marks the second consecutive month in which U.S. teen employment was up, but Age 20+ employment was reported down. According to the seasonally-adjusted data, November 2022 saw 43,000 more 16-to-17 year olds successfully gain employment, while the number of working ...

Summary Today, the yield curve is more inverted than at any time since the early 1980s, so many are saying that means the chances of a recession are pretty high. Yes, today the curve is very inverted, but real yields are not particularly high. Low spreads suggest the market is relat...

Summary With all the recent optimism, the S&P 500 has hit a high around 4,100, and the VIX has come down to the 18-20 range. Unfortunately, this 18-20 level in the VIX is the range that bear market rallies die out at in this market. Also, the Fed's rate hike in about a week will...