Onwards and upwards tally ho
The S&P 500 continues to push on, hitting another big figure change, 5000, if only briefly recording its 9th record close this year already, and it’s still just the start of February. Can this carry on? Probably not. What brings in a dose of sobriety? Who knows. The fact that the Fed is clearly stating they are in no rush to cut interest rates is now a positive for stocks as it reinforces the belief that the underlying economy remains in good health. The divergence between tech and non-tech grows ever larger in terms of investment returns. Someone asked me if this feels like the 2000 tech bubble, and although it has some similarities, there are also a lot of differences. For a while leading up to the bursting of the dot-com bubble, as it is so affectionately referred to, money chased literally everything that moved that had a com at the end of it. The fact that it did not make money or have revenues or ever the prospect of either mattered not. For those who have read anything of the South Sea Bubble all those years ago would understand the comparisons. Today, the chase is on still to find the next Meta or Tesla, but maybe in a slightly more circumspect way.
On the flip side, that also means that although some stocks and industries are now unfashionable or not so tech sexy and then become largely ignored, they also become far more attractively valued. But in a world of instant gratification, the tech sector continues to have its allure.
We are all aware of the multitude of elections coming up this year outside of those living in the UK, who is going to be the next leader of the free world is much on everyone’s mind during what feels like a generally geopolitically unstable world, The choice at present is between a man who is looking to use Presidential immunity to hide from a multiple of charges or a man who has to defend his mental capacity against a report from the Department of Justice report that describes him as a well-meaning man with a poor memory. It hardly feels the worst thing that can be said of you. Would the country be better run by an ill-meaning man with a good memory? Not sure. Anyway onwards and upwards, for now.