Monday Market Movement – Slight Jitters Ahead of the Fed

Lots of earnings this week.

We have no Fed speak until Friday as they are having their meeting this week and Powell will speak Wednesday afternoon, after their announcement and it’s doubtful they do anything but fears are they will push up their timetable to combat the raging inflation they still won’t admit is happening.  We also have our GDP Q2 Estimate on Thursday and leading Economorons are predicting 8% growth to keep up with our 10% Inflation – as with most things in this economy – it’s an illusion.

I’m in Orlando this week and, though there are plenty of people out and about, it’s not summer-crowded and there are still plenty of empty store-fronts.  Also plenty of help wanted sings and prices everywhere are out of control so it’s clearly an economy in transition.  Over at Disney (DIS), there are a lot of pissed off “cast members” because, during the pandemic, Disney laid off almost all the food service workers but kept the customer service, show and costume types – since they were harder to find.  Then, when restrictions eased, they moved those workers to food jobs and now they can’t find food workers so they still haven’t moved the customer service types back to their old jobs.   

What they thought was pitching in and helping out the company they loved has led to a career they never wanted (or thought they had escaped).   Depressing!  People come to Disney from all over the World and they stand together in huge lines etc. and no one is wearing a mask!  I was very surprised at Sea World and Disney there are no mask rules at all and nowhere in Orlando were there mask requirements – unless you want to take an Uber, which still requires them to ride. 

On the whole, however, I’m not too worried as peple are watching Orlando closely to see if it’s a “super-spreader” zone and, so far – it hasn’t happened.  Most Americans are vaccinated and probably most park visitors – though it would be nice to see an actual study. Disney will, in fact, restart their cruise line on August 9th, after considering the park…

Provided courtesy of Phil’s Stock World.