The Dividend Cafe - The DC Today - Wednesday, January 10, 2024

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/4aN8tiB An up day for markets across the board. The drama on the SEC/bitcoin ETF deal moved today. Yesterday it was that they had approved a bitcoin ETF as expected, and bitcoin prices fell. But then they announced that, no, they had not approved it (yet), and the announcement was from a “hack.” Uh-huh. Then the chairman of the SEC took to Twitter to announce that people investing in crypto should “be cautious” due to “serious risks involved.” And today they approved the ETF exactly as had been reported yesterday. I was on Varney this morning talking wealth tax, Wall Street’s view of government spending, and dividend thoughts. Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Welcome to the DC Today, your daily market synopsis of the Dividend Cafe, brought to you every Monday through Thursday to bring you up-to-date information and perspective on financial markets. Well, hello and welcome to the Wednesday edition of the DC Today. I am probably going to be keeping it kind of short today because there's not a whole lot to report on, but you want a little market summary and I want to cover a couple of the highlights of the day for you before I go to my next meeting. The Dow ended up 171 points. It was about 43 basis points to the upside. The S&P was up 57 basis points. The NASDAQ 75 as technology and communication services were leading sectors on the day. The worst sector on the day was energy down 1%. Oil prices themselves were down about a dollar or so, about one and a quarter percent. And the bond market was pretty well flat.

You had a little bit of gains as yields in the shorter end of the curve came down. And then at the longer end, like the 10-year, the yield was up one basis point. So a tiny bit of spread widening on the curve. The SEC thing that I talked about yesterday, they did it today announcing that they have approved the ETF. they had fake announced yesterday and then said it wasn't their announcement. And then it turns out today it is true. And so either way, a Bitcoin ETF has been approved and Bitcoin is down several thousand dollars from when the announcement came. But nevertheless, at least now the SEC is out and I couldn't begin to explain to you what happened. The big news though, I guess, is for tomorrow is the CPI report for December will come at 5.30 in the morning and we'll kind of see how the bond market

responds. We'll see how Fed market expectations respond and, of course, the stock market and the sentiment, the media, the traders, all those things. It could potentially lead to a sell-off. It could potentially lead to a rally, and it may do nothing. But as one of the points I made in our white paper we put out on Monday, I expect enhanced volatility around a lot of these short-term announcements. And if there's a lot of noise tomorrow, then that would be in line with that expectation. But I also don't see any reason that whatever the announcement is, it would be a sustainable noise. I think it's all just very much that, noise. But our expectations on CPI, I think we're pretty clear. We believe it will continue to be reasonably flat levels of year-over-year inflation with the shelter side going lower in the way that it's measured.

In other words, catching up to the reality on the ground about rent prices and owner's equivalent rent and therefore putting downward pressure in the measured inflation. That's our house thesis and I'm sticking to it, especially over the months to come. So that's all we have for you today. I do welcome you to send any questions you have, particularly feedback you may have had from the white paper, questions at thebondsandgroup.com, our year in review, our year ahead forecast.

We're here for you if you have any questions. And in the meantime, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. And thank you for reading the DC Today. And feel free to check out our YouTube page today, my clip with Varney on Fox Business this morning. I think that gets you up to speed on where we are. Thanks so much.

The Bonson Group is a group of investment professionals registered with Hightower Securities LLC, member FINRA and SIPC, and with Hightower Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor with the SEC. Thank you. that the investment process or investment opportunities referenced herein will be profitable. Past performance is not indicative of current or future performance and is not a guarantee. The investment opportunities referenced herein may not be suitable for all investors. All data and information referenced herein are from sources believed to be reliable. Any opinions, news, research, analyses, prices, or other information contained in this research is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. The Bonser Group and Hightower

shall not in any way be liable for claims and make no express or implied representations or warranties as to the accuracy or completeness of the data and other information or for statements or errors contained in or omissions from the obtained data and information referenced herein. The data and information are provided

as of the date referenced. Such data and information are subject to change without notice. This document was created for informational purposes Thank you. material was not intended or written to be used or presented to any entity as tax advice or tax information. Tax laws vary based on the client's individual circumstances and can change at any time without notice. Clients are urged to consult their tax or legal advisor for any related questions.