Fall is Here but Stocks are Up!
ROBARE & JONES ON THE MARKETS
The S&P 500 rose 1.3% this week, lifting October's monthly advance to 6.9%, as US corporations' Q3 financial results continued to come in mostly above estimates.
Friday was the final trading day of October, which started Q4 on a strong note and wiped out the S&P 500's 4.8% September slide. With just two months remaining in 2021, the index is now up nearly 23% for the year to date.
The consumer discretionary sector had the largest percentage increase of the week, up 4%, while financials fell 0.9% and energy shed 0.8%. The consumer discretionary sector's gainers included shares of Tesla (TSLA), which rallied 22% this week to record levels and sent the electric car maker's market value above $1 trillion following an order for 100,000 vehicles from car-rental company Hertz Global.
Companies releasing quarterly financial results are expected to include Mosaic (MOS), Simon Property Group (SPG), Pfizer (PFE), DuPont (DD), CVS Health (CVS), Kellogg (K) and American International Group (AIG).
Reports to watch for include ADP's October private-sector employment numbers on Wednesday, followed by the LOD's weekly jobless claims on Thursday and monthly nonfarm payrolls on Friday.
Let's take a look at the markets from this past week!
November's Notable Days!
November is chock full of holidays. Thanksgiving, Veteran’s Day, Dia De Los Muertos, Diwali, Hanukkah, and Giving Tuesday are widely celebrated, and there are a significant number of less widely celebrated holidays on the calendar, too. These include:
- World Vegan Day: Celebrating the vegan lifestyle (November 1).
- National Sandwich Day: Celebrating all sandwiches, from peanut butter and jelly to BLTs (November 3).
- National Stress Awareness Day: It’s a day to begin to identify, manage, and lower stress in your personal and professional lives (November 3).
- World Tsunami Awareness Day: Within a decade, almost half of the world's population will live in coastal areas that are vulnerable to tsunamis. The United Nations reports that having plans and policies in place can help manage the effects (November 5).
- National Redhead Day: Celebrate all of the red-headed people in your life (November 5).
- World Freedom Day: Commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe (November 9).
- Marine Corps Birthday: Celebrating the men and women who serve in the U.S. Marines (November 10).
- World Kindness Day: Promoting the idea that kindness and compassion has the power to build and unite us (November 13).
- National Absurdity Day: Celebrate the ridiculous, unreasonable, and crazy in everyday life and throughout history (November 20).
Here are two tree things you can talk about on National Absurdity Day: (1) Tulips were once more valuable than gold; and (2) There are almost 100 holidays in November.
What do you have planned for November?
