In this review, we have chosen not only to look back over the prior 90 days, like we usually do, but we also wanted to look forward as we go up to the end of 2022!

Patience is a Virtue

Jerome Powell (Chair of FOMC) and his fellow FOMC board members have continued to raise rates, much faster and much greater than many, including ourselves thought possible. Rewind back just to the beginning of the year and the federal reserve were actually pushing rates down, in a quick about face by the end of the first quarter, rates were on their way up an asset purchases by midyear had reversed and become asset runoffs. Their purpose is of course to slow inflation a.k.a. CPI (consumer price index), while with great intentions many of the inputs in the CPI index are very lagging and have likely already rolled over but have yet to feed into the actual report due to their delayed nature.

Patience is needed as mentioned in the bullet before this commentary and also greatly outlined in our Q4 2022 newsletter. In that newsletter, which you should already have in your possession, we outline the normal lengths of time that a slowdown occurs and what to expect from almost all angles. The main reason that we did this is to remind ourselves, and everyone else as well, as the last decade has garnered an unusually fast and short slowdowns and commensurate recoveries. With the FOMC on a continued rate increase, this slowdown is likely to be much more similar to prior slowdowns in both time and fatigue of the economy. Patience, we will get there.

Looking Forward but no Predictions

Using history as our guide, the fourth quarter is indeed usually one of the best. However, as mentioned above, the macro economy pulled down by the federal reserve and continued right increases may overwhelm seasonal historical blossoms and weigh down a normally sunny period on the calendar.

Contra moves in both Equity/Stock and Fixed Income/Bond

In slow downs, equity markets have an unusual tendency to slowly drip in reverse and then all the sudden make a jump forward only to slowly start dripping in reverse again.

In this economic cycle, we have a new asset class that is also participating, the Fixed Income Market. As mentioned earlier with the federal reserve and Powell on a continued increase goal interest rates on the longer end of the yield curve i.e., the 10 year (versus the very short one or two) have smartly slowly gone down only to jump backwards up again and then slowly begin their decrees again. Patience is again a virtue, a slowdown leads to lower rates eventually, even with the FOMC raising rates.  Patience really is a virtue, we will be there with you, thanks for your time and your patience

Sincerely,

John A. Kvale CFA, CFP

Enclosure (2022 Report)