Investment Commentary – September 15, 2021
Year to Date Market Indices as of September 15, 2021

• Dow 4,474 (14.02%)
• S&P 4,440 (19.48%)
• NASDAQ 15,409 (19.83%)
• Gold $1,799 (-5.40%)
• OIL $71.48 (48.29%)
• Barclay Bond Aggregate (-1.54%)
• Fed Funds Rate 0-0.25 (0-0.25)
• Annual Inflation Rate 5.4% (As of 8/11/21)

CPI Rises Less Than Expected But Year-Over-Year Numbers Remain Elevated

The CPI rose less than expected in three of four categories vs the Bloomberg econoday consensus. Year-over-year numbers remain problematic.

Month-Over-Month Details

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.3 percent in August on a seasonally adjusted basis after rising 0.5 percent in July.

The indexes for gasoline, household furnishings and operations, food, and shelter all rose in August and contributed to the monthly all items seasonally adjusted increase.

The energy index increased 2.0 percent, mainly due to a 2.8-percent increase in the gasoline index.

The index for food rose 0.4 percent, with the indexes for food at home and food away from home both increasing 0.4 percent.

The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.1 percent in August, its smallest increase since February 2021.

The indexes for household operations and shelter, the indexes for new vehicles, recreation, and medical care also rose in August.

The indexes for airline fares, used cars and trucks, and motor vehicle insurance all declined over the month.

Year-Over-Year Details

The all items index rose 5.3 percent for the 12 months ending August, a smaller increase than the 5.4-percent rise for the period ending July.

The index for all items less food and energy rose 4.0 percent over the last 12 months, also a smaller increase than the period ending July.

The energy index rose 25.0 percent over the last 12 months.

The food index increased 3.7 percent over the last 12 months.

The consensus opinion was for the CPI to rise 0.4% month-over-month vs. the reported 0.3%

The consensus opinion was for the Core CPI to rise 0.3% month-over-month vs. the reported 0.1%

The consensus opinion was for the CPI to rise 5.3% year-over-year vs. the reported 5.3%

The consensus opinion was for the Core CPI to rise 4.2% year-over-year vs. the reported 4.0%

Here’s everything Apple just announced at its iPhone 13 event

Apple kicked off its fall product event on Tuesday by diving right into lots of product announcements.

Here’s what Apple announced:
– The new iPad and iPad mini
– The Apple Watch Series 7
– The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini
– The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro Max

The new iPads will go on sale after the event on Tuesday and ship next week. The new iPhones go on sale on Friday, Sept. 17 and ship on Friday, Sept. 24. The Apple Watch Series 7 will ship later this fall. OF note: it didn’t announce new AirPods.

News Around The web:

Modest retreat: While none of the daily declines exceeded 1%, the S&P 500 and the Dow on Friday fell for the fifth trading session in a row and ended the week down around 2% overall. The NASDAQ posted a slightly smaller decline.

Labor market gain: New filings for federal unemployment benefits dropped to a pandemic-era low, with 310,000 claims submitted in the latest weekly count. That’s down from the previous week’s 345,000 figure and the lowest since March 2020.

Inflation moderates: A measure of U.S. price trends at the wholesale—rather than consumer—level continued to rise at a historically high rate but slowed somewhat from the prior month’s gain. The government’s producer price index rose 0.7% in August compared with the previous month, down from two straight month-to-month jumps of 1.0% in June and July.

https://www.marketwatch.com/ (Market Indices)
https://jasonzweig.com/this-day-in-financial-history/ (This day in Financial History)
https://www.jhinvestments.com/weekly-market-recap (Around the Web & Upcoming Events)
https://finviz.com/groups.ashx (YTD Performance Chart)
https://mishtalk.com/economics/cpi-rises-less-than-expected-but-year-over-year-numbers-remain-elevated
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/14/apple-event-iphone-live-updates.html