The Dividend Cafe

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/41lZfWf Greetings from 29 degree Grand Rapids, Michigan where I have had a day of meetings and recordings and give two different speeches in two different Michigan cities tomorrow. I will be back in the much warmer climate of New York City on Wednesday. In the meantime, the special Monday DC Today awaits you … Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3t62eFN I really do like the SOP for Dividend Cafe (that’s “standard operating procedure” for those of you who have time to say full words instead of acronyms that always require explanation anyways, hence adding triple the time to what could have just been said in long form to begin with). What I mean here is that I have for several years now selected a singular topic for each week’s Dividend Cafe and written a 2,000-3,000 word piece on that topic. There have been a few exceptions where we did a wide array of “Q&A” as our focus, and we will continue doing that once a quarter or so when we get an excessive build-up of “Ask Davids” that the DC Today cannot bear. But for the most part, the Dividend Cafe is, I think, better as a deeper dive week by week into a given topic on my mind and heart. I keep it investment and economy focused, of course, because if I went anywhere my mind and heart went, I would end up doing some Dividend Cafes about my favorite steakhouses in New York City, what is wrong with today’s Republican Party, or what in the world my daughter’s vernacular in our family group text chat means. But Dividend Cafe will stay in its lane, I promise. Focus, David, focus. Anyways, today I am doing the buffet thing, but I didn’t write it throughout the week – I wrote it all at once. I simply had three “mini” topics I wanted to address instead of one “mega” topic. I hope it is cohesive and interesting, but if you hate it, at least you know next week, we will go back to the single-topic norm of the Dividend Cafe – our SOP. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/4abzegh The market opened up a handful of points this morning and slowly built on gains for most of the day. After a big move lower across the curve in yields this week we took a bit of a breather today with a flat 10YR up two basis points at 4.14%. Stay tuned for a three handle on 10’s. We are starting to see this market rally broaden out with the equal weight version of the SP500 breaking away from the market cap weighted index. This is showing the average stock starting to participate more in this rally outside of technology names, which I find constructive. Both large cap and regional banks by the way are back to where they were pre SVB failure earlier in the year. Part as a normalization of stress in the financials and part for a 2024 line up that could favor the banks if we get better net interest margins as the yield curve potentially normalizes with the short end moving down. This is something we have seen before; late cycle rally in financials as the Fed pauses and ultimately cuts the following year (95’/96′ comes to mind). Monthly financial obligations for consumers like auto payments and home payments, as a percentage of household cash, are on the rise and now at 16%. Interesting however that even with such a rise in rates these are still actually below pre-pandemic levels which was closer to 18%. Higher rates just haven’t bit as hard as years past with such a prolonged low rate refinancing period the years preceding it. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/486oKwS If you’re surprised by how much expectations have turned down for U.S. interest rates and Fed policy in 2024, you should see what those crazy cats in Europe have going. Markets are now fully pricing in SIX rate cuts next year – 1.5% reduction in their lending rate. Bank CEOs testified before the Senate finance committee today, making the case that the planned increase in capital requirements would be detrimental. They specifically pointed to where the cost of such increased capital would come from – customers. A not-unexpected talk. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Bakersfield, CA) announced his resignation from Congress today. I hereby predict he will make more money in 2024 than he did in 2023. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/4a8TMWG As we get ready for a busy week of jobs data a few things stick out: (1) The weekly jobless claims remain very low which seems to indicate a continued healthy employment market (2) The “quits” rate (people voluntarily leaving their job) has been very high, and even as it has come down from early 2022 highs, it remains very elevated historically (3) The number of job openings remains very high (though it fell to 8.7 million this month, still 1.5-2 million higher than pre-COVID average, but well off 2021 highs) (4) The average work week has steadily declined on the margin (from 35 hours, which was above the 15-year average, to 34.25 hours, which is below the average). (5) Several data points have softened in recent months, but not softened to what can be called “weak” conditions – just “less strong” than had been the case previously A few other market tidbits and things that caught my eye today … It is interesting to me that small cap value has outperformed growth since the turn in the middle of the year, but large cap growth has modestly outperformed large cap value. The two are normally correlated. Some of the “big seven” names that have driven a lot of the market this year have not moved at all in six months (well, they have moved up and down, but I mean they currently sit flat from where they were this summer). The broader market has begun playing a little catch-up. 2024 earnings expectations are now up to $246/share in the S&P 500. We are likely going to end at $221 for 2023 so this would mean earnings growth of +11.3% in 2024, rather amazing if it happened. Of course, at that earnings level, the S&P is still trading at an 18.6x multiple (forward projected), and is trading currently at 20.7x. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3uFMLMZ Ask David “If you are an investor in a passive index fund, exactly what happens to your equity when that fund/index removes a poor performer, and replaces it with a stock that has recently performed much better? While I suspect that your equity may stay the same upon replacement, it seems intuitively like an example of buying high while selling low. Is there any documented study of index fund performance over time due to the survival bias? Do you have any thoughts on the topic?” ~ Dom I think I understand what you are saying but actually in this case the survival bias of the index methodology helps its performance over time, not hurts. What you are suggesting makes sense prima facie – that they are adding companies at high prices and removing others at low prices – but the fact of the matter is that the companies removed from the index is very rare, and almost always only happens after the company is broken. A significant amount of companies that have been removed from market indices over the years no longer exist at all, meaning that path from “a low price” to “zero” was never experienced by the index investor. Of course, there are cases when a company is removed from an index and subsequently rallies from a low valuation, but that is much less frequent than the opposite. And all of it is very rare and inconsequential … Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3GnL8pE Rarely have I hyped up a Dividend Cafe so much and set you all up for such disappointment. The topic I write about today is one that has been on my mind and in my research orbit for a long time, and on a couple occasions I actually teased up that it was coming, only to pull the plug and defer publication to a later date. Well, that later date is today. We know the huge hype around Artificial Intelligence in 2023 – not merely in stock prices, but throughout society. On a daily basis we hear of some reference to how AI may change education or business or politics or, my favorite, farming. And as is always the case, this “hype” has a foundation to it – there is a profoundly interesting evolution in technology playing out that will change the way a lot of things are done. It will involve policy adaptations, cultural pushback, misallocations, great advancements, and, yes, certain negatives. All of these things are par for the course in a world that grows – that is, a world that was created to see human beings innovate around the raw materials they were given. Someone should write a book! But fundamentally, artificial intelligence is a big deal, even if the early years of its introduction will be filled with misunderstanding and wrongly directed reactions. But people do not read Dividend Cafe for my assessment on the technological or even cultural context of new innovations. Rather, our job here is to assess a whole host of subjects for their economic and market impact – particularly for investors (and to be more particular than that, for our investors, that is, clients of our firm – or those of you who will be clients of our firm). The Artificial Intelligence story is an investor story, too, and that requires a sober reflection on a lot of things. Today’s Dividend Cafe is that sober reflection. Let’s jump into the Dividend Cafe … Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/4115jTU A BIG divergence today between the more value oriented DOW which jumped 520 points today, and the more technology heavy Nasdaq down .23% as interest rates broke the trend and rose today. Coincidently, I wrote yesterday about the sensitivity in the part to the market that has had the most multiple expansion tethered to falling rates as having potential for disappointment. Both PCE inflation data coming out in-line with expectations and a stronger growth print in the Chicago PMI’s moved rates up today as much as yesterdays decline in continued bond market volatility. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3N5Ec4C A mixed but ultimately flat day of trading in stocks following another decent move up in bonds as the 10 Yr came down another 8bps to 4.26%. Hard to believe we were north of 5% just last month. I was actually expecting yields on 10’s to pick back up after a better than expected upward revision to Q3 GDP mid morning, but this bond market is dead set on lower rates in 2024. All eyes will be on the inflation read tomorrow with PCE to see if that changes the narrative. If the seven largest US technology companies were its own sector it would make up 18.2% of the market cap of the MSCI World Index and account for only 10% of the earnings. In comparison, the entire Financials sector in the MSCI World index equates to three precent less at 15.1% by market cap, but makes up over twice the earnings at 21.9%. Valuations may be a poor timing tool short term, but they do matter longer term and the multiple expansion in tech we have just seen can be easily disappointed if lower rates don’t keep pace next year. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3Gl2T9d The market is up over 10% in just twenty trading days, a 99th percentile move if there ever was one. The rally has brought along lower-quality equities and higher-quality ones, and financials, in particular, are surprisingly strong. Defensives are not as strong (consumer staples, utilities) as more cyclical or high beta sectors, but they are hanging in there. The dollar has dropped, and the Yen has rallied in the last few weeks, causing many currency traders to say, “Wait, it wasn’t supposed to do that?” Markets were pretty boring again today (though to the upside), and bond yields continued their decline. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3sYDwqz Futures opened last night down -40 points or so, worsened a bit throughout the evening, and this morning pointed again to a down -40 point open pre-market. The market opened pretty flat this morning and just stayed in a tight range to the downside throughout the day. The Dow closed down -57 points (-0.16%) with the S&P 500 down -0.20% and the Nasdaq down -0.07%. *CNBC, DJIA, Nov. 27, 2023 As a contrarian, I do not like seeing the put/call ratio and bull/bear sentiment be so tilted towards complacency. Even the VIX at $12.69 is pretty surreal. The ten-year bond yield closed today at 4.39%, down almost -10 basis points on the day as the November bond rally continues Top-performing sector for the day: Real Estate (+0.38%) Bottom-performing sector for the day: Health Care (-0.64%) Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3SR97oG On this special Wednesday Dividend Cafe, just one day before Thanksgiving and sixty years to the day after John F. Kennedy was assassinated and C.S. Lewis passed into glory, it is my sincere pleasure to bring you the annual Thanksgiving Day edition of the Dividend Cafe! Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/47JhGpJ Futures markets in the fed funds rate now show a 0% chance of any future rate hikes in 2023 or 2024, but then show mixed results around when rate cuts may begin (a 35% chance in March, a 65% chance by early May, an 88% chance by June). Those numbers will all change, but it is where the debate lies entering 2024. The Fed balance sheet sits at $7.8 trillion right now, down $1.2 trillion from its high, but still 88% above pre-COVID levels. Will the Fed’s inevitable cutting of rates be a good thing for markets? I wonder what you think? Let me put it this way … is it even possible to answer that question without any further information? Hint: It is not. Two things have to be known to better answer that question. (1) Was the cut a surprise or well-telegraphed, and (b) What. Was. The. Reason. For. The. Cut. Beware of anyone assuming rate cuts are good without a discussion of that second question. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3sAWzr1 For the second time in the last couple of months, I am going to call an audible and not publish a Dividend Cafe on the artificial intelligence moment and its relevance for investors, despite having announced I was doing so the prior week. I have actually been assembling and digesting research on this topic for many months and am quite excited for the final product to appear in Dividend Cafe. But it is too important of a topic and an issue I have worked on now too much to publish prematurely. I was in New York City the first two days of this week, Dallas the next two days, and am in California now. Between a massive amount of meetings, events, portfolio activity, flights, and all the things, I was engulfed in a different topic this week instead of finishing my other piece. This week’s topic is pretty darn important, though. In fact, I believe it serves as the macro story of our moment. It brings in some very important history and how to think about the past in the context of the future (not exactly an old or stale topic for those who remember last Friday), but it also allows us to understand what is going on right now in a broader and more extended sense. I think where interest rates go over the next ten years matters (also a fresh topic on our minds). Still, one could argue that everything going on right now has to do with the cycle we are in, had previously been in, and the question around where we ultimately go. So let’s hang tight on artificial intelligence and investing a little longer because this week, we have to cover a tale of two decades. It will take you ten minutes to really appreciate ten years. Let’s jump into the Dividend Cafe … Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/40JB5EW It was a pretty quiet day today, although we were down almost 170 points mid-day following some slower economic numbers to then rally back to just about flat on the day in stocks. Honestly, with the significant move up this week, just seeing markets just hang in and constructively consolidate and stay at these levels (both in stocks and bonds) is a good thing and bodes well. This week, we had lower-than-expected inflation numbers in both CPI and PPI, some weak retail sales, the largest US retailer citing disinflationary pressure, and today, we got a jobless claims number that was higher than expected. Mix all of this in a bowl, bake, and no matter how you slice it, you’ll get an unquestionably cooling economic pie. See what I did there as we head into Thanksgiving week. =) Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/46gNK3n With over 90% of companies now having reported Q3 earnings, we stand at a 6.3% growth rate and well above Octobers estimate of just 1.6%. Just as I mentioned on CNBC World Monday night, profit growth is exceeding revenue growth as companies with pricing power that raised prices the past year due to inflation are showing margin expansion as some of those input prices ease. Also, for all you wondering, it really was just CPI and not my global television debut that fueled the market rally the following day. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/47wGQI7 Markets rallied huge today as bonds rallied in the aftermath of the CPI report. Interest rates went into total free fall (the 10-year is down a stunning -18 basis points, and the entire 2/10 curve is down 18-21bps in what may be the biggest bond rally of the year and possibly several years) as the CPI number came in at, wait for it, +0% month-over-month (headline inflation). The core number (excluding food and energy) was +0.2% on the month versus +0.3% consensus expectations. Year-over-year, the core CPI was +3.2% versus +3.3% ex-expected. But there’s more. Rent growth is being measured as +6.8% on the year and rent of primary residence +7.2%. Both are down +1% from recent highs but a minimum of 4% too high versus real-life “current market” metrics. That means assuming 3% shelter inflation (I am being very generous) at a 34% weighting, the 1.35% attribution coming off CPI brings headline inflation to 1.85% and core inflation to 2.65%. So, yeah, the Fed is about to take the credit. And the right teed it up for them. Ay yi yi. Money supply (as measured by ODL – Other Deposit Liabilities– the best measure of available money in the system for a lot of reasons) has declined now for three straight years. We know it flew higher post-COVID. We know about lags and monetary aggregates and all that jazz. All excess liquidity created out of COVID has been evaporated from the system. And yet, over $1 trillion of debt next year will mature and be re-borrowed at 3-4% higher in cost (as things stand now). And for those who choose not to roll over debt (many companies, some individuals, zero governments), cash reserves will be used (that, my friends, is what you will call lower velocity). Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/47aKXKm There are some financial writers who I believe are professional doomsdayers. There are some who are more nuanced. And, yes, there are others who I think are hard to pin down. I suppose it is most fair to treat all people individually, with unique circumstances and particulars around their approach and worldview. For example, I think some are SINCERE but almost always WRONG (and have a business model that depends on scaring people, even if they really believe it). Some professional doomsdayers are, in my opinion, rank charlatans and grifters – though I’d rather not give names here. Hopefully you get the idea … As for how to prepare for various “bad things,” well, that’s pretty much what I write about every week in the Dividend Cafe. In the first such issue this month I wrote the following, and it would apply to the wide array of possible scenarios we face: “Our Operation Magnify is forever committed to active, proactive, intelligible allocation of capital across Dividend Growth companies, in the Boring Bond space needed to preserve capital, in Credit assets where there is opportunity and compensation for risk taken, in areas of both Growth and Income Enhancement, and of course in Alternatives where we can seek to lower the volatility profile of a portfolio and diversify sources of risk and reward. Doing that in an era of high rate volatility, of high ambiguity about monetary policy, and a period where far too many eyes are only on the Fed requires a contrarian bend, a deep commitment to real enterprise (bottom-up company realities that transcend monthly price volatility), and a faithful commitment to the principles that made Magnify what it is. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3u3NcAi Sir John Templeton could have never known what staying power his famous edict would have when he wrote in 1933, “The investor who says, ‘This time is different,’ when in fact it’s virtually a repeat of an earlier situation, has uttered among the four most costly words in the annals of investing.” He wasn’t wrong, and the vast majority of the time that famous quote is used (mostly via paraphrase), it captures a vital truism – that people assuming certain things about the past are no longer true and investing accordingly generally get their faces ripped off. Today, we unpack what issues are the same, what may be different, and what that all means for an investor in 2023. Lots of things stay the same in this world because the creator of the world is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The law of gravity is still working. Men and women are still different. And UCLA is still a mediocre football program (hey, now!). But some things do change because that same creator made the world to be dynamic and gave the human race agency in its stewardship. And we know human beings can be temperamental. So jump on into the Dividend Cafe, and let’s discuss the permanence in change of being an investor (extra credit to any who remember the second greatest band of my youth, The Alarm). Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/40yBPwn We started off todays session in another quiet day, until about 1PM ET when we had an abysmal 30-year treasury auction on $24B of notes that moved rates higher across the curve that gave us our first down day in November for the SP500. With an increased supply in new issuance to fund a $2T budget deficit and a dearth of large buyers like our own Federal Reserve and other large Sovereigns it took higher rates to get this auction to close with the lowest bid to cover ratio in weeks. 2’s are back over 5% and 10’s were up 11 bps. Oil was flat on the day but down 7% this week back to pre-war levels, and while energy stocks have given up some gains as well keep in mind that the sector in large remains in an uptrend with 94% of the energy name complex has a 50 day moving average above its 200 day. I am far more focused on fundamentals like the increase in CAPEX in our names recently than technicals like this, but note worthy of its relative strength amongst other sectors nonetheless. Powell’s comments today at the IMF cited that Fed officials were ‘not confident’ they were restrictive enough with rates to bring inflation back to 2%, which added to todays give back in stocks. So, the market tea leaves yesterday read his statement as dovish and today hawkish, and so there you go. I get into why this day-to-day Fed obsession shouldn’t matter to investors, and more in todays video podcast link below. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3My1KhW Futures were as quiet as could be last night, and markets followed suit in a benign trading range that came off the lows mid day to close slightly higher and extend our November rally at least on the SP500. To be fair, we did come into November with only 17% of the SP500 having a positive three month return so were set up well for a rally and while the market did close higher yesterday the advance decline ratio on the NYSE was a dismal -1.6 to 1, so we are losing some steam here. The top two weightings of the SP500 (one makes Windows and the other the iPhone), now make up 14.6% of the index and each have larger market caps than the entirety the UK FTSE 100, the French CAC and German DAX indices. To say the market remains top heavy in big tech is an understatement. US and Chinese economic dependency on one another (one to make widgets and one to buy them), has continued to decline. The US now imports more from Mexico than from China for the first time since 2003, and China is recycling less of those dollars back into US Treasuries as a result. Both of these tie into why private foreign investors make up a larger piece of Treasury buying and why, in addition to slowing Chinese economic fundamentals, the Yuan has devalued against the dollar this year. All this and more in todays video podcast. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/46Z4Xj5 This is the longest winning streak (number of up days) for the S&P 500 in two years. One of the least encouraging things? The delta between cap-weighted and equal-weighted results … Top-heavy doesn’t end well. But nevertheless, markets are enjoying a very strong rally over the last week and a half. Oil was hit hard today (down over -4%). Some traders think things will settle in the Middle East. It appears S&P earnings growth year-over-year for this earnings season is going to top +5.7%, with revenue growth of +1.2%. Margin expansion has been something to behold and has a lot to do with market resilience in this challenging rate period. Office behemoth WeWork, officially declared bankruptcy. Shiny objects are painful to watch implode. The ramifications to commercial office space will be notable, but it does appear creditor restructuring has been reasonably pre-negotiated and is not likely to result in huge vacancies hitting the market. For all the weakness in manufacturing and insistence that construction is hurting and (especially) China’s weakness, why is iron ore doing so well and copper basically hanging in there? Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3SuN9Yy Nothing like the Monday edition of DC Today. I’ll get right into it. Dividend Cafe dealt with the subject of long term interest rates and what it all means for the economy and investors. I think it was a useful way to think about what the long term is supposed to measure, and what current Fed actions mean for that process. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3tWWLRz It has been a volatile month in markets, to say the least. October represented the third consecutive negative month in all three market indices, coming off of a modest downturn in August and September, as well. October did it in more roller-coaster fashion, starting off the month with a 600-point drop in the first few days of the month, only to see that reverse to a +1,000 point increase from October 6’s low to October 11’s high (that’s a pretty quick comeback), only to then drop -1,500 points (no typo) from mid-month to late-month, only to then yet again rally, being up over +1,100 points from the low of last Friday to the time I am typing this just one week later. But the intra-month volatility and the odd twists and turns of the market throughout the year all speak to a bigger underlying dynamic in markets that I have obsessively covered in these very pages all year – the role of monetary policy, financial conditions, and bond yields in driving investor outcomes in this very short term moment. That entire landscape was the heavy focus of our annual week spent with various money managers, hedge funds, and research partners this year (I covered Fed chair, Jerome Powell, last week). The evolution of our annual “due diligence” week has led to a lot more meetings with managers in private markets, as well (equity and credit). Across private and public markets, we got a chance to see what is most on the minds of asset managers at this stage of 2023, and you will be shocked to know it is not a lot different than the same things on the minds of all investors. And those things are the subject of this week’s Dividend Cafe – the underlying conditions right now creating multiple round trips of a thousand points in the market in just one month. Jump on into the Dividend Cafe … Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - Big rally day, with markets posting a very nice fourth day of gains, closing up 564 points and putting us now up almost 5% on the week. While I would love to say it’s off to the races, under the hood, the relative underperformance of the higher beta components of the market just feels less convincing. Another bond market rally day as well, with 10’s coming down another nine bps to now 4.67%, along with continued yield curve volatility. Following a slightly lighter-than-expected Treasury issuance report that was more front-end loaded on the curve and QT, which has removed the largest buyer of the front end, we’ve gone from 18bps inverted yesterday morning to now 30bps. For those citing the historical track record of an inverted curve un-inverting just before a recession starts (looking at you ‘bond king’), the last two days have us in the opposite direction. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3tYWGgn So the market closed the month of October down -1.35% in the Dow, down -2.2% in the S&P, and -3.4% in the Nasdaq. Let’s just say those numbers got a lot better the last two days, though. And then today was noteworthy as well … Fed Day is the best day, and today the Fed kept rates where they were, as expected. The market was up +100 when Powell began talking, it went up to +200, then gave that back, then went up +250, and closed just a tad below that level. More importantly, bonds rallied viciously – with each maturity from two to ten years on the treasury curve seeing yields drop over 10 basis points. His only comments about quantitative tightening were that they were not, at this time, considering slowing down or ceasing their “run-off” of the balance sheet. The word “run-off” is key because they are not actively selling bonds – they are letting about $80 billion of bonds mature per month and not reinvesting the proceeds. This is a form of tightening, but less aggressive than some have suggested. Bottom line – Powell was pretty clear that they know financial conditions are, themselves, doing their work for them, and while he skirted around QT it is hard to see how anyone could hear what he said today and conclude any additional rate hikes are coming. As mentioned yesterday the rally on Monday saw 2.5 advancers for every 1 decliner, and yesterday it repeated at 2.3 to 1. A year ago when the market bottomed and a nine-month rally began the breadth of the rally was consistently above 5-to-1 and sometimes well above 10-to-1. Market participation is still too thin to feel good about things. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3QErw6L With half of the companies having reported quarterly results, we now see +4.3% earnings growth year-over-year and +1.4% revenue growth. Of course, half is only half. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/49hz1aU Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - I closed out our annual “money manager due diligence week” last week with a luncheon put on by the Economic Club of New York with Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell. He surprised me by saying some things that I was not expecting, and he also said a lot that I could have predicted verbatim (okay, I did predict verbatim) before the speech. But despite all my earnest desire that the main action in markets let alone the economy not be at the whim of a few unelected academics, the Fed is the major story of markets right now. Their propensity to stay way too loose for way too long followed by a period of being way too tight for way too long is the cyclical and rotational story of our economic and market-oriented experience for 25 years. We met with nearly twenty money managers last week (across a wide variety of asset classes in both private and public markets). We did not meet with a single one who did not bring up the Fed, the state of monetary policy, the potential direction of monetary policy, and its impact on how they think (and in some cases act). So let’s jump into the Dividend Cafe where today is all about the Fed, the rubber chicken, and the radicals who stormed the stage before the speech began. Well, actually, we spend very little time talking about the rubber chicken or the people who stormed the stage and delayed the event for fifteen minutes while security and law enforcement did their thing. Those things really happened and were quite upsetting (especially the chicken). But the Dividend Cafe today is all about the actual words of Jerome Powell and what it all means. Off we go. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/45RiZ4B Yesterday’s little market move was pretty weak sauce (not even 2-to-1 advancers to decliners and not even 1% in any index). Yields soared back today, putting downward pressure on the S&P and Nasdaq in a 2022 kind of day. Yesterday, I recorded DC Today in the studio in our Newport Beach offices, had already submitted the final written edition, and then walked down the hallway to my office to eight pop-ups and notifications and alerts that Tom Emmer had removed himself for contention for the House speakership. Five minutes earlier, I had talked about how he was the most recent candidate, but I still didn’t see a path for him to get the votes. Twenty-four hours later, Congressman Mike Johnson of Louisiana is the new Speaker of the House. In one day, our Q3 earnings season theme of divergent results amongst companies was on high profile display as the largest software company and an up-and-comer in cloud applications (Microsoft) posted positive results, while the largest search and advertising revenue firm in the world (Google) posted negative cloud revenue. The S&P earnings yield is still higher than a 10-year treasury yield (total earnings dividend by share price). Of course, that differential is less than it has been in the last twenty years, but it is actually much more historically in line with where it was in the 1980s and 90s. The highest earnings yield in the market? Energy. China increased its tolerance for a deficit to the highest in thirty years last night (above the 3% limit of deficit-to-GDP) and stated that deflationary risk will not be tolerated. President Xi actually made a trip to their central bank (he has never done that). The fiscal side of Japanification seems to be coming. The monetary side is the question mark. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3tLGlvi Markets today rallied a bit (though they closed off their highs) as Treasury yields calmed down and leveled out. Earnings season is not even 20% complete yet, so all projections are quite premature, but thus far, revenue growth is coming in +0.9% year-over-year with earnings growth of +1.2%. There will be more meaty data to chew on in the next week and the week after that, of course. Republicans nominated Tom Emmer as their new potential Speaker of the House, but it is highly doubtful they have the votes in a full vote of the House to get him approved. A fair question – are many people buying Treasuries now not as a non-recession call (yields higher because there is no recession), but rather as a recession call (one will come and right now we get 5%, so buy now and then during a recession Treasuries rally and yields fall). In other words, is it a trade? And if it is one, is it a good one? Time will tell. Was 5% the top in the 10-year? It is obviously way too early to say. It fell pretty quickly below it yesterday and today closed at 4.81%. But the bond market volatility in 2023 doesn’t allow us to read anything whatsoever into 19 basis points or 30 hours. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3QqYcRa So the market came into today just 300 points above its intra-day low of Friday the 6th at the beginning of this month, having rallied about a thousand points off of that in the six days that followed, but then selling off three days in a row to end last week. Bill Ackman announced this morning that he had covered his short on U.S. Treasuries (another way of saying this is that he ended his bet on rates going higher). Bonds also rallied on the news as the 10-year yield dropped 17 basis points (from +8 to -9). Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/46P3YBs Greetings from New York City, where I will be leaving very early Friday morning to head back to California for a week and where I have been in meetings all week with our major money manager partners across every asset class in which we live. I had thought about doing today’s Dividend Cafe as a sort of recap of the week, but I am going to need the plane flight home to better organize 25 pages of notes and more decks than I know what to do with. I am in content overload mode at the moment, which is one of my favorite modes to be in (often times I am in Chinese food overload mode, so “too many charts” about the economy is far healthier than “too much fried rice”). I plan to really clean up my notes and takeaways and allow more organized thoughts to create a deliverable around this week’s findings. Brian Szytel and Kenny Molina are phenomenal Investment Committee partners, and we were all richly blessed by the conversations we enjoyed this week on interest rates, economic projections, housing, credit markets, relative value opportunities, and more. So, for those who want to tag along a bit on the week, stay tuned – more to come. But that does leave me with a Dividend Cafe to write and not a whole lot of margin in which to write it. Luckily for me (and maybe for you??), a robust set of questions has come in that I have been sandbagging, and it seems like a good time to use Dividend Cafe to answer all of your latest and greatest questions. I am quite confident these questions that have come in will reflect things on the minds of many of you, so get ready for some good takes on such subjects as fears about interruption to dividend growth, minimum wage laws, velocity and inflation, dollar strength, China, and more on the Israel/Middle East situation (discussed in last week’s Dividend Cafe). Get ready to jump into the Dividend Cafe … Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3Q1Ot2c This is Trevor Cummings playing backup quarterback for one more day. As mentioned, David will be back with you tomorrow with his weekly Dividend Cafe. Today is quite a busy one for David, as he will be attending both the Economic Club of New York for Jerome Powell’s speech and then closes out the evening at the National Review Gala. With that said, we’ve got a handful of data and news to keep us busy for the time being. We will tackle initial jobless claims, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey, existing home sales, Powell’s speech, and Jordan’s persistence. That was a mouthful, now off we go… Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/48YpBB6 This is Trevor Cummings filling in for David Bahnsen. David is in the midst of day three of his annual TBG Money Manager Due Diligence trip. As mentioned, he will be back with you for the weekly Dividend Cafe on Friday. Markets were a bit more active today than yesterday. We also had a rebound in housing starts, another L for Jordan’s ballot push, and Biden seeking a monumental aid package for Israel. And off we go… Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/46UIS4q Today David Bahnsen is on day two of the annual TBG Money Manager Due Diligence trip in New York. This is an exciting time of the year as our investment committee dives deep into all the portfolio particulars and then surfaces with a plethora of content to share with our clients as well as some actionable portfolio items. I believe this is year 18 of this trip and something that I know (1) David greatly enjoys and (2) has a meaningful impact on how we manage capital for our clients. Thank you, David, and we look forward to welcoming you back for the Dividend Cafe on Friday. With that said, I, Trevor Cummings, will take the reigns today and walk you through the latest market happenings. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3ZSi3fd I am writing this week’s Dividend Cafe from my apartment in New York City, very early on Friday morning, hours before I will leave for an all-day symposium I have attended every year since 2009 (besides the COVID-cancelled years, of course). I mention this only because my philosophy of dealing with markets in the aftermath of exogenous shocks and particularly geopolitical events was heavily influenced by the historical realities taught to me at this very symposium over the years. I do not learn anything new in attending any more; I just immensely benefit from the reinforcement. But this week we have had an event so tragic, so reprehensible, so infuriating, and yet also one that requires me to reinforce myself (perhaps redundantly) the principles and best practices prudent investors must hold dear. But I also brought up New York City, because it had a terrorist event of its own back shortly after I entered the business, one which also profoundly impacted me. I have talked a lot in the past about the history of it and lessons learned. The 9/11 moment is, all at once, one of the seminal moments in my younger adult life, the very first shocking moment in my investment career, and an event obviously connected directly to New York City. (You know, come to think of it, I was right here in March of 2020 as well when the COVID matter was becoming an American reality, and wrote about all of that, then, too. There is just a deep association for memorable market moments in my life and career with New York City). Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post -https://bahnsen.co/3FkhgKh The headline and Core CPI figures today were largely in line with expectations as the market opened. However, we witnessed a reversal of early morning gains throughout the session, resulting in both stocks and bonds closing lower. Interestingly, Fed futures remained relatively unchanged after the release of these numbers, hovering at approximately two-thirds, suggesting that the Fed is unlikely to make any significant changes in the foreseeable future. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the market lows experienced last year. What’s intriguing, though, are the disparities within the markets that contributed to the S&P 500’s impressive 22% gain over the past year, following a significant downturn in the previous year. Currently, less than half of the market is trading above its 200-day moving averages, indicating that the market’s performance has been far from universally strong. Financials, in particular, have experienced a nearly 20% decline during this recovery, and it’s worth noting that this has been the weakest small-cap return following a market bottom in history. However, there is good news amidst this divergence. The contrast between interest rate-sensitive sectors, such as small caps and financials, and the lack of broad market participation presents numerous opportunities for value investors like ourselves to look forward to. Active management will be crucial in navigating this complex landscape. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3LYNG0J Treasury yields dropped again, and stocks rose again today. The minutes from the Fed meeting last month came out today and said nothing new or unsurprising at all. ExxonMobil agreed to buy Pioneer Resources for $59.5 billion in an all-stock deal that represents the largest oil and gas deal in over two decades. I am not sure that an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza is imminent. Even though I am convinced, Israel will (and should) do whatever it can to eradicate and punish this atrocity, a ground invasion appears to involve so much complexity and challenge that much of the work I have read in the last 24 hours suggests it may require more planning, nuance, and particulars than was initially expected. The IRS says Microsoft owes it $29 billion? They should’ve used TBG Tax! The House Speaker race is going to be very interesting, with a majority of Republicans voting to send up Steve Scalise for a vote, but not potentially enough to get him over the needed line in a whole House vote. More here: Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3S0qSBs Markets today moved higher as bond yields came lower. One can argue that bond yields are dropping in response to comments from Fed governors yesterday (see below) but the more prominent factor is likely a slight flight-to-risk out of the war situation in Gaza. What it has done, though, is exacerbate the stock-bond correlation whereby they were both dropping in September and now are both rallying. Earnings season launched with Pepsi announcing their results before the market opened. Markets liked it. President Biden joined with European leaders in a joint statement taking an unambiguous stance against Hamas and for Israel. He gave a speech this afternoon that conceded there are American fatalities and hostages. Congress and even the White House are not really the challenge here – a rare thing to be able to say in this day and age. The challenge for the President will be, to borrow from my favorite political commentator, Mark Halperin, “the squad, and then Harvard students.” But there also will be a real challenge for the administration to maintain their posture with Iran (it will likely be impossible), and what can be done about American hostages taken by Hamas is not going to be easy either. Add to that the complexity of getting aid for Ukraine and Israel in the next 2-3 weeks, and this is going to be a challenging time at the White House. The death toll appears to be over 1,500 now. The reports all seem to indicate that one of the reasons Israeli intelligence picked up nothing on what Hamas was doing was that there was simply no electronic communication about it at all – none. The Republican mess over the next Speaker of the House is as blurry, evenly divided, and unclear as it was a week ago. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3tpEJXU All attention this weekend immediately moved Saturday morning to the unspeakable attacks on Israel by Hamas, the declaration of war to protect themselves by Israel, and speculation as to what the ramification would be. I assure you ample commentary is provided on those subjects in this edition of The DC Today, An important thing to note today: the stock market was open, but bond markets (and banks) were not. There is obviously action in the bond futures world (indicating yields down and prices up), but with no cash market bond action it is simply a distorted and weird day. It only happens twice every year (Columbus Day being one of them), but it basically never happens following a weekend of such global turmoil. As an earnest believer in price discovery, I feel somewhat limited in terms of thoughts and deeds when all useful information is not actually available. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3LS40QV On August 1 of this year the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 35,630. As of press time this morning, just a tad over two months later, it is trading just below 33,000. This is a -7.5% drop in about nine weeks, which we will discuss more in today’s Dividend Cafe. If -7.5% in nine weeks doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, it’s because it isn’t. However, what I didn’t mention is that almost all of that drop has been in the last three weeks (-6% of the -7.5%). The Nasdaq has fared a tad worse with similar timing in the numbers – a peak at the end of July, a slow drip down since, with an accelerated downturn the last few week. The right thing for me to do in this period is probably not write about it. By addressing it I enter the unavoidable territory of contradicting best behavioral practices around market downturns. And yet we exist to offer perspective, point-of-view, commentary, and conviction, and so to not address key market or economic activity would also be problematic. The reality is that a -5% or -7% drop in markets (or more, for that matter) is a par for the course, standard, status quo, always-to-be-expected part of equity investing. I shouldn’t (and won’t today) write as if it is an urgency or source of panic in any investor’s life. The behavioral realities around market volatility should (and will be today) constantly reinforced. And at the same time, there are particulars in this stage of the cycle that I think are worth unpacking. So today’s Dividend Cafe does it all today – it holds in tension the two things I most struggle with on these pages: the macro commentary of current events, and the behavioral wisdom of how not to react to such. Let’s jump in to the Dividend Cafe … Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3F8Luji More or less, there is one market movement right now, even if it has three parts. Bond yields and the dollar are in the same direction; stocks are in the opposite direction. Those three in those respective relationships are all part of one story, not three different stories. In a nutshell, I remain convinced that the story has become one of quantitative tightening. The Fed is a seller (sort of) of Treasuries, not a buyer (meaning they are not rolling over matured bonds). Global central banks are buying less to support their own currencies. And that leaves individuals and economic buyers who buy at good yields but not lower yields. On Capitol Hill, the race for the new speaker is setting up to be a real circus. I know, you are shocked. Gasoline is down over -20% in the last three weeks! Mary Daly of the San Francisco Fed said in a speech today that, wait for it, holding rates where they are is also restrictive monetary policy! Hmmmm, you don’t say. Other than that, it was an uneventful day, and the intra-day swing was only -225 points (the chart visually looks more violent) – all in a flat day. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/46j9PPy Following another down day yesterday, we got a little reprieve in markets, with both stocks and bonds posting gains on the day. The biggest economic news on the day was the miss in ADP Payroll numbers, which starkly contrasted with yesterday's big upside surprise in the jobs openings report. More openings but fewer private payrolls could either mean there is a cyclicality or variability around the timing of correlation between the two or could have just been from the number of new job openings TBG just posted this month. Still, either way, the more significant number will be this Friday when nonfarm payroll numbers come out. While yields came off following today's economic data during the trading day, it is notable to see 10-year yields hit 4.88% in overnight trading and 30-year treasuries reach 5%. As a result, US debt interest expense is now just over 14% of tax revenue, which has not been the case since the late 1990s and has historically been a threshold in which fiscal austerity begins to show. Fact notwithstanding, last night, we also saw the ousting of the Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, by his party for the first time in history for getting a bill passed not to cut spending to avoid a government shutdown. I strongly suspect deficits at 7% of GDP during full employment will keep volatility high in Washington as tough decisions must be made. While the Fed says higher rates are here for longer, I remain skeptical, given the tightening financial conditions we have already seen. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3RJ28h3 Markets were hit hard again today, and I do imagine we are getting closer to some short-term capitulation, but you never know. The way the regional banks have been acting lately is noteworthy. This bond rally has not let up and is basically 100% of the current market story. Why have oil prices gone up so much even as gas prices have not really gone up (and have, in fact, come down)? Refinery margins have collapsed, period. There is more than one input to retail gas prices at the pump. Cleveland Fed President, Loretta Mester, is the latest Fed head to say she believes another rate hike is needed. But she also said part of that would depend on … “the UAW strike” ?????? Yep. She is not a voting member of the FOMC, by the way. You’ve heard all the talk about record levels of credit card debt. It is currently 3.7% of nominal GDP. It was 3.9% of nominal GDP in late 2019. It was 4.2% in 2010 after the financial crisis. Sorry, but the numerator is not the only number in a fraction. Market rates are tightening without the Fed. The idea that the Fed would pour gasoline on top of this is surreal to me. But so is modern central banking. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3F3CrAp Ask David “A couple weeks ago in your ‘What to Look for in an Advisor‘ Dividend Cafe, you pointed out that most advisors outsource portfolio management and asset allocation, and you expressed your disagreement with that trend. I agree with you, but I was wondering if you could unpack the specific reasons for why you disagree with outsourcing the investment process and why there is merit in direct portfolio management by advisors.” ~ Nathan I really don’t feel strongly that most advisors should be managing capital directly, and in fact, for a significant amount of advisors I have met, considering their work ethic and intellectual capacity, I am glad they don’t. But I do feel that TBG should because we consider it our calling, part of our authentic skill set, and a huge part of our value proposition. What I believe is more universal, though, is that all advisors should have some baseline competence in capital markets, even if they do not practice security selection or portfolio management directly. And that they should be accountable for who they outsource to and not use third-party partners as mitigation of their own decision-making. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/4598Q3a I hope (and assume) that long-time and regular readers of Dividend Café know that I am a sucker for history. I think this is true of all history, going back thousands of years, covering many eras, geographies, nations, people, and events, but it is especially true of American history. 20th-century American history is not very old, but wow, is there ever a lot of material there. What happened in 1906 or 1915 or 1933 that matters to us today is “history” now – but when it was happening, it was “future history.” It was also well before I was born. There are, though, events in my lifetime, even my adult lifetime, that represent future history, much like the events of the early 20th century I allude to above. Knowing that I lived through these more recent events, that I have my own particular context to add, that they were both personal and all at once cultural – it all makes my interest in “modern events” of my adult lifetime that will be “future-historical” intense and profound. If I write too often or too obsessively about such things, forgive me, but it isn’t going to stop. I believe living through history being made is almost as fun as studying the history that was long ago made. And all of it I count one of the great blessings of this life. It deeply impacted my life and allows me to obnoxiously wax and wane nostalgically, but it also deeply impacts your portfolio, even today. For much of the last 25 years you might argue this event had the most significant market impact, period. I am not being hyperbolic. And that event is the subject of this week’s Dividend Café. Let’s jump into a little modern history and a 25th anniversary you will benefit from understanding. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/468UHnU This morning, we had a slew of economic data that moved markets modestly to the upside in stocks and bonds in a fairly positive trading day throughout the session. Q2 GDP revision was largely unchanged, jobless claims were better than expected, and Core PCE revision was also unchanged. Yields moved lower across the curve following the releases, which put some wind in the sails for most risk assets today. The inverted yield curve is slowly but surely becoming less so as longer rates rise, and is now half of what it was a month ago at 47 bps on 2/10’s from over 100 bps. With short rates anchored closer to Fed Funds, why are longer rates moving higher? A combination of the Fed’s QT, Japan’s exit of Yield Curve control, US budget deficits and less Treasury demand from China on falling exports. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/3rtSIve The market opened up a bit and got up nearly -150 points before dropping nearly -300 points (an intra-day swing of over -400 points) before rallying back a few hundred points and closing down just -68 points. Who knows what the next two trading days hold but right now the only asset class on my screen up on the month is the DOLLAR. Bonds, Gold, Europe, Emerging, TIPS, Small Cap, Tech. Utilities – you name it, all down. The dollar, up nicely (DXY). At this time we expect the government shutdown will kick in on October 1 (this Sunday). Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, said yesterday that if rates were to get to 7% you would see a deflationary asset unwind and a lot of asset bubbles burst. The media ran with the comment as if he were predicting that rates would go to 7%, which of course, he was not. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/45cmDG2 Markets were hit again today (five out of six days to the downside) as the Biden administration announced a major antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, and general market jitters continued (despite a flat day in bond yields). Why is the U.S. dollar up so much when things are supposed to be so bad in the U.S.? A good place to start might be the fact that yields are high and growth has been decent (and compared to other places, quite decent). Currency is a relative game, always and forever. More dollar bears have lost their faces and reputations, failing to understand that basic point more than anything else. To be totally honest (and believe it or not, I am serious right now), I cannot remember if “net neutrality” rules were supposed to ruin the internet and the world as we know it or if “rescinding net neutrality rules” was supposed to ruin the internet and the world as we know it. What I do know, or at least I think I know, is that we used to have them (I think), and then they were rescinded in the Trump administration (I think), and it doesn’t seem like a lot of horrible things happened in having them or not having them. And then this morning, I see that with the Biden Administration now having a majority of votes at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the intent is underway to bring back net neutrality rules, which is either a good thing or a bad thing. I would have more to say if I could keep it all straight. Another Fed governor is talking about a further rate hike, and futures respond by INCREASING the odds of NO further hike. Follow the fed funds futures, not the rush to a microphone. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com