Monday, November 15, 2021
Markets closed nicely in the green to end last week, but were down overall — for the first time in six weeks — on fears inflation were creeping fast into the economy, possibly at a rate the Fed doesn’t currently have the capacity to remedy. Strong Q3 earnings results overall helped assuage those fears, and the market drop last week remains in the zone of the previous weeks: still within striking range of new all-time highs.
The long-awaited Infrastructure Bill has finally made it through Congress and awaits President Biden’s signature today. It’s what’s being touted by the White House as a “once-in-a-generation investment” in the country’s infrastructure, and that’s not even an exaggeration: it will be the most the U.S. has spent on repairing roads, bridges, railways, airports, etc. since the early 1980s. The total cost of the program will be $1.2 trillion.
The breakdown of the soon-to-be law allots $110 billion to upgrades and rebuilds to roads and bridges across the country, $66 billion to improve tracks and logistics in rail, $65 billion for wider-reach broadband Internet, $65 billion to enhance and build out power grids, and $55 billion for water and sewage repairs and upgrades. These investments are expected to add 2 million jobs to the economy per year. It is also the first major bill in U.S. history to explicitly assert provisions toward a cleaner environment.
Meanwhile, a new Empire State Index for the month of November has been released today, with results notably better than expected: 30.9 is solidly beyond the 22.0 consensus estimate, and even higher than the unrevised 19.8 reported for October. This continues the ping-pong up-down results per month we’ve seen for this productivity survey for New York State going back to this past summer. The high mark in this series came back in July at 43.0 — back before the Delta variant of Covid-19 asserted itself and damaged the near-term economy.
At this hour, the Dow is +150 points, the S&P 500 is +15 and the Nasdaq is +65. This would suggest a revitalized attitude is in play among market participants — possibly with infrastructure in mind, partially with holiday shopping season (not to mention Q3 results yet to come from the Retail sector) just getting under way, and perhaps with relative bargain shopping ahead of what some investors may be expecting: new higher highs in the trading days to come.
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Infrastructure Bill Gives Market Bulls New Impetus
Monday, November 15, 2021
Markets closed nicely in the green to end last week, but were down overall — for the first time in six weeks — on fears inflation were creeping fast into the economy, possibly at a rate the Fed doesn’t currently have the capacity to remedy. Strong Q3 earnings results overall helped assuage those fears, and the market drop last week remains in the zone of the previous weeks: still within striking range of new all-time highs.
The long-awaited Infrastructure Bill has finally made it through Congress and awaits President Biden’s signature today. It’s what’s being touted by the White House as a “once-in-a-generation investment” in the country’s infrastructure, and that’s not even an exaggeration: it will be the most the U.S. has spent on repairing roads, bridges, railways, airports, etc. since the early 1980s. The total cost of the program will be $1.2 trillion.
The breakdown of the soon-to-be law allots $110 billion to upgrades and rebuilds to roads and bridges across the country, $66 billion to improve tracks and logistics in rail, $65 billion for wider-reach broadband Internet, $65 billion to enhance and build out power grids, and $55 billion for water and sewage repairs and upgrades. These investments are expected to add 2 million jobs to the economy per year. It is also the first major bill in U.S. history to explicitly assert provisions toward a cleaner environment.
Meanwhile, a new Empire State Index for the month of November has been released today, with results notably better than expected: 30.9 is solidly beyond the 22.0 consensus estimate, and even higher than the unrevised 19.8 reported for October. This continues the ping-pong up-down results per month we’ve seen for this productivity survey for New York State going back to this past summer. The high mark in this series came back in July at 43.0 — back before the Delta variant of Covid-19 asserted itself and damaged the near-term economy.
At this hour, the Dow is +150 points, the S&P 500 is +15 and the Nasdaq is +65. This would suggest a revitalized attitude is in play among market participants — possibly with infrastructure in mind, partially with holiday shopping season (not to mention Q3 results yet to come from the Retail sector) just getting under way, and perhaps with relative bargain shopping ahead of what some investors may be expecting: new higher highs in the trading days to come.
Questions or comments about this article and/or its author? Click here>>