The Dividend Cafe - The Dividend Cafe Tuesday - October 8, 2024

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

Market Updates and Economic Concerns on October 8th In this episode of Dividend Cafe, Brian Szytel provides an overview of the financial markets on October 8th. The Dow closed up by about 126 points, and the S&P and NASDAQ showed positive returns as well. Interest rates showed a slight downward movement, and a bond auction did not meet expectations. The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index rose marginally, but remains lower than the historical average. Concerns loom over the upcoming election and its effects on taxes and inflation. Market concerns also focus on Hurricane Milton, which has been downgraded to a category four storm but still poses a significant threat to central Florida. The U.S. trade deficit was slightly lower than expected, due to increased oil exports. The host extends thoughts and prayers to those affected in Florida and invites listener questions. 00:00 Introduction and Market Overview 00:08 Economic Calendar and Market Performance 00:44 Small Business Optimism and Economic Concerns 01:23 Hurricane Milton Update 02:01 Trade Data Insights Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com

Welcome to the Dividend Cafe, weekly market commentary focused on dividends in your portfolio and dividends in your understanding of economic life. Welcome to Dividend Cafe. This is Tuesday, October 8th. Brian Saitel with you here on a slightly positive day in markets. Fairly quiet, actually, in the the economic calendar but we had a dow that closed up about 126 points on the day pretty close to the highs on the session which was good to see the s&p was up almost one percent and the nasdaq was up about one and a half percent and we had some interest rates move a little lower across the curve the yield curve steepened a little bit so we had short-term rates fall a little more than long, but we closed at 4.01 on 10s on the day. There

was a $5 billion three-year auction that came out a little softer than expected in bond land. So there you have it on the market. As far as news goes, there was an NFIB, Small Business Optimism Survey, that came out marginally higher in September. It was up about a third of a percent in 91.5. Those numbers are somewhat arbitrary, but just historically, the average is more closer to the 98 level. And so this is on the lower end of that. And small businesses are concerned about what tax rates will be and who's going to be in the White House, where inflation will come in, where interest rates are going to go. Of course, all those things that go into that. And the uncertainty index inside of that was definitely at a heightened level, primarily, again, around

uncertainty with what's going to happen on the election side. There was continued concern and worry and, frankly, money movement around the Hurricane Milton, which is headed for central Florida now from the Gulf of Mexico. It was category five. It's been now downgraded to a category four, but it's still expected to be very strong when it hits Florida. And our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone there. This is going to be somewhere near the Tampa area,

but these things will update and adjust real time. But wish everyone's safe a couple of days there. It looks like Thursday would be the day that things would be most likely affected from that unfortunate storm. Lastly, I guess there was some trade data out. We had the U.S. trade deficit come in a little lower than expected, although we're still talking about a $73.1 billion number for the month. I don't know how you could really say that's lower, but oil inside of that was the bright spot. So we had higher oil exports. Prices have been a little lower. And so we've exported a little bit more and that

decreased our deficit slightly on the month. So there you have it. Again, thoughts and prayers out to all in Florida. I'm going to let you go for the evening. Please reach out with your questions as you always do and have a lovely evening. Thank you very much. The Bonson Group is a group of investment professionals registered with Hightower Securities LLC, member FINRA and SIPC with Hightower Advisors LLC, a registered investment advisor with the SEC. Securities are offered through Hightower Securities LLC. Advisory services are offered through Hightower Advisors LLC. Advisory services are offered through Hightower Advisors LLC.

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