January 17, 2023

 

Sunday
January 15, 2023

 

Hello everyone,

I trust you had a great weekend.

It’s Martin Luther King Day on Monday, January 16 – a public holiday.

John – up 19.83% in January.

Reason: go long when everyone else is terrified to do it – as in January.

Go short – in December – when everyone was jabbering on about a Christmas rally.

And there you have it – end of narrative.

Looks like stocks will continue to party until around early to mid-February. So, 4,300-4,330 S&P are targets. If these are broken, then look for 4750.

Gold and Silver will continue to rally for the time being. For those chart analysis fanatics – it’s all in the picture – the rally could go up to make a third point on the Daily Gold chart. (GOLD, GLD, SLV).

To keep on the right path, keep picking up those bond positions – (TLT, MUB, JNK, & HYG) – a must-have in a falling interest rate environment.

A weaker US$ is on the cards. Commodities do well here – (FCX) and (BHP). Don’t forget about emerging markets either (EEM). The Euro, Pound, Aussie, and Yen will all do well here.

Real estate - apparently, it’s going to be strong for around the next 10 years. Does anybody have an argument against investing in bricks & mortar – especially your own home – in this environment? You just have to look at the lines of people queueing up to look at a one-room flat in a town in New South Wales to understand which side of the fence is best to be on – owner or renter?

Appalling situation – and I know that Airbnb is contributing to the squeeze in housing availability. As many as 135 properties in a northern New South Wales town are unavailable to rent because they are an Airbnb property. Consequently, there are only two properties available in this town.

Some owners have raised rents as much as $125/week to take advantage of the gravy train. Shame on those owners who see occupants forced to leave – sometimes, long-term renters – because they cannot pay the huge amount of extra dollars. I understand owners may be feeling it too with extra costs, but there must be a happy medium somewhere.

The U.S. will hit the debt limit on Thursday. Yellen has told McCarthy that he needs to either suspend or increase the debt limit. If the House Speaker doesn’t step up, the consequences would be dire for the U.S. economy & the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability. Haven’t we been in this situation before?

Food fraud – do you know what it is?

Olive Oil – switched for cheap ones.
Parmesan Cheese – switched with something else.
Counterfeit, dilutions, substitutions, and mislabelling is the name of the game in the food industry now. It seems anytime a product can be passed off with a cheaper alternative, it will be.
Food fraud not only harms consumers’ wallets, but it also puts our health and safety at risk.

So much of food fraud is hidden from us and has been for centuries. It affects at least 1% of the global food industry at a cost of around $40 billion a year, according to the Food & Drug Administration.

It is estimated that 10% of the commercially available food in the United States is adulterated. That’s 1 in 10. So, expect to have something in your supermarket cart when you leave the checkout.

How does this happen?
It’s Economically Motivated Adulteration (EMB). It’s a monetary impact to the food consumer and to the manufacturer, but it’s also a public safety issue, robs people of nutrients and can kill people.

Recommended Reading
Real Food, Fake Food by Larry Olmsted
(2016)

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The worst offenders can include seafood, meat, dairy, alcohol, spices, and honey, to name a few. It happens more often with expensive foods.

40 million people a year in the U.S. get sick from what they eat – which you could say is unintentional, but also fraudulent. The cause usually stays undiscovered.

The coffee you buy will pass through a lot of middlemen before it hits the shelves of your supermarket, etc. One of these middlemen could be adding something to the coffee for economic gain. Who would know?

During the pandemic, 21% of fraud incidents recorded in 2021 were labeled fraud. Anyone for cellulose derived from wood pulp added to their parmesan cheese. It’s happened.

We have plenty on our plate today. Sorry for the pun.

Looks like we will have to be more conscientious at reading labels and info about companies and suppliers.

Wishing you a fabulous week.

Cheers,

Jacque

“Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.