Milan Cacic
December 30, 2021
Money Economy Commentary Trending Weekly updateSOME INTERESTING DATA AND A CHART THAT MIGHT BRING US SOME HOPE!
JP Morgan’s Global Markets Strategist Marko Kolanovic wrote that “There is a paradox that on average, U.S. stocks are down 28% from highs (most highs were recorded in the first half of the year), and the median stock is down ~21%, while the market is up ~22% for the year (Russell 3000).” For those wondering: this is not normal. The market indexes are up and the average stock is down. We have not seen a divergence like this before. What does it mean? There's probably some good value in small caps and maybe it's time for large-caps to pull back a bit. Time will tell!
All of us are getting tired of COVID-19 and its variants. There was a chart I saw the other day that brings me some hope, which I’ve shared below with you. The chart below shows South Africa's new cases, which have spiked significantly, overlaid with new deaths. Hopefully when Omicron explodes here, we experience something similar, or maybe better. I should note that Africa's vaccination rate is only 25% versus 75% here in Canada.
Source: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/south-africa
I've also included a well done piece from our CIBC Economics Team entitled "'Twas the night before Christmas".
As always if you have any questions please feel free to give us a call anytime.
This will be our last market update until 2022. I hope everyone has a great break.
Happy holidays
Milan