Jorden McVeagh, Editor

https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/positioning-in-a-chaotic-stock-market-with-key-sectors

Stocks on the Asian market have declined as of Mon., November 14, 2022, while European and American stocks open higher due to the optimistic views on inflation in the US and virus cases spanning over China. Last week, US inflation reported at a lower rate than in the prior weeks which caught the attention of investors all over the world. They hope that this hints that the FED will rethink its plan to continue to raise interest rates to help fight rising inflation. However, industry workers such as Venkateswaran Lavanya of the Mizuho Bank believe this is not an accurate measure as to what is coming. In an article published by US News, Lavanya said, “It is far too hasty to declare a decisive conclusion to inflation risks.” Meaning, that reports can come in on a daily, but we cannot assess these as true indicators as to what the FED will do with interest rates in the future. This still did not stop the various markets from around the world from responding to this news. Exchanges such as the FTSE in London saw a 0.8% gain, the DAX in Frankfurt just behind them at a positive 0.7% gain, and Paris’s CAC 40 jumping 0.5%. However, not all markets responded in a way that would reflect this optimism. In the US, the S&P 500 dropped 0.2%, with the Dow Jones dropping 0.1%. These numbers still should not be looked at as a representative value for the entire US stock market. While the markets did see a slight drop, the S&P jumped 5.5% on Friday alone. This ends a great week for the US markets, which saw all three exchanges ending in the green. Last week was also a big week for the US political economy with the congressional elections being held, which found Republicans likely to take control of the House of Representatives, and the Democrats taking the Senate. In Asia, concerns of COVID are still high. The Nikkei 225 out of Tokyo dropped by 1.1% while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong went up 1.7%. With the news of the Chinese government making the decision to reduce the economic cost of their Zero COVID policy are primarily the reason behind the major shift of the markets. Finally, in Seoul, the Kospi dropped 0.3% with the S&P-ASX 200 following with a 0.2% drop. The FED will meet again in December once again to discuss interest rates. Investors expect another rate hike however this time only by half a percent in comparison to three fourths of a percent that was seen with the last four hikes. It will be interesting to see what the markets continue to do in the coming weeks leading up to the meeting. As talks of recession creep into the conversations in America more often, it may get worse before it gets better, but we will not know until more plays out in the coming weeks.