August 2023 Monthly Recap

Talking Points

  • Inflation snapped a streak of 12 straight monthly declines, rising from 3% to 3.2%, though it was still below forecasts of 3.3%

  • The labor market added 187,000 jobs slightly above the expected 170,000, and unemployment fell to 3.5%

  • Retail sales increased 3.2% year-over-year marking the largest gain in five months as consumer spending remains strong

  • The 10-year Treasury yield rose from 3.97% to 4.09% as investors weighed furture Fed rate hike expectations

  • Market breadth faded as only 35% of S&P 500 companies were above their 50-day moving average, the least since late 2022

Market Health Indicator*

Market Data
market health indicator monthly index performance

*The Market Health Indicator is a monthly indicator created in September 2021 that is designed to measure market health on a scale of 0 - 100, analyzing various market segments such as economics, technicals, and volatility using data back to January of 2000. Higher scores indicate healthier market conditions.

  

Fun Facts

Started From the Bottom, Now We're Here

  • The first college football game was played between Rutgers and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton) in 1869. Rutgers won 6-4.

  • While Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, fall officialy begins on September 23 this year. Bring on the pumpkin spice!

  • Yoda and Miss Piggy were voiced by the same person - puppeteer      Frank Oz.

  • The Four Corners is the only spot in the US where you can stand in four states at once: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars.

India became the first country to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon’s south pole. The Chandrayaan-3 mission had a reported budget of just $75 million, less than what Warner Bros. spent to make the film Gravity.

Just days prior, Russia failed to accomplish a similar feat as its unmanned spacecraft “ceased to exist.” So why the sudden in interest in the south pole of the moon?

Scientists believe the region could be home to ice deposits which could be melted into water and used to help make rocket fuel. This would provide the ability to establish the moon as a launching pad for more advanced and longer-term missions to space at considerably reduced costs.

More than half a dozen countries have plans for lunar missions in the coming years, and NASA is working toward its Artemis III mission to put astronauts back on the moon as soon as 2025.

To view the rest of the Market Update, click here.