With Apple leading the way, the stock market rose through Wednesday, buoyed by a series of rather upbeat earnings reports. They included...
With Apple leading the way, the stock market rose through Wednesday, buoyed by a series of rather upbeat earnings reports. They included:
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Exxon Mobil‘s revealed that, thanks to soaring oil and gas prices, it had made the most profit in seven years.
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The declaration of Starbucks that it had raised prices and would continue to do so. “We have additional pricing actions planned for the remainder of this year, which play an important role in easing cost pressures, including inflation,” said Kevin Johnson, President and CEO of Starbuckssaid on a conference call.
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Alphabetreports that he was earning far more than Wall Street analysts had expected. Its fourth-quarter profit reached $20.6 billion, up 32% from the same period a year earlier.
The mini-rally was a welcome reprieve from a dismal January, when the S&P 500 briefly plunged more than 10% — the territory that denotes a “correction,” a moderate-severity decline on Wall Street. There have been a series of strange records: it was the worst January for this benchmark since the 2009 financial crisis, and the worst month since March 2020, as much of the world shut down early of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet on Jan. 3, the first day of trading in 2022, the S&P 500 also hit an all-time high, having hit a new high 70 times in 2021.
The direction of the stock market has changed, several times, already in 2022.
What to think of these various mind-blowing records and the obvious ephemeral influence of the results calls?
I find them fascinating as an observer but irrelevant as an investor. Try to anticipate them every step of the way and you’ll end up tripping. The constant fluctuations of the market in response to company disclosures is, in my opinion, an argument in favor of using index funds to invest in the global market as a whole, not in individual stocks.
Instead of worrying about just one company, you own a small share of them all – in the hope that in the long run, the strong performers will win out over the weak ones.
One wonders if this will be the case next year. Overall, US equities are still expensive and the money supply in the economy is expected to shrink, which could be a tough combination for the stock market, especially in the US.
You can understand these issues by taking a long-term view – looking at the economy as a whole, never focusing on the struggles and profits of specific companies. But these companies matter. Grasp the details and you may have a better understanding of a vibrant but precarious economy.
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