Oil takes a plunge, but the stock market has a good day after the 4th of July weekend. The Stock Market and the Crypto world seem to be holding current positions with slight upticks and this is a good sign that we are either at the bottom or the bottom is close. Another good sign for the economy at large is the price of oil going down. 

 

Prices at the pump are down from their highs and the price per barrel of oil dipped below $100 for the first time since May earlier this week. All of this is happening because of the hikes in interest rates that everyone keeps talking about. The Fed Rate hikes are starting to work in regard to cooling inflation. However, some people, like those at Citigroup, think that the looming recession will hit harder than most people think. Citigroup recently made a prediction that the price per barrel of oil could go as low as $65.

 

A Monmouth Poll asked Americans about the biggest concern facing their family and the No. 1 answer was by far Inflation at 33% of responses. The other top responses hovered around the same theme (Grocery Bills, Gas Prices, and The Economy). Very few people polled seemed to care about Covid, Civil Rights, or Climate Change.

 

Missouri Attorney General is threatening to sue cities that try and cover out-of-state abortion expenses. This is getting mixed views from conservatives; on one hand it is an attempt to save babies lives (We wish that's where it stopped). But, on the other hand it is infringing on the "rights" of private employers. Think about Hobby Lobby and their legal battle over contraception and how that can be flipped on its head and used against the pro-lifers. Long story short, the abortion battle will never be over in this country until the baby in the womb is a protected human life at the federal level. Even then we will have to constantly convince others about the truth of human life starting at conception.

 

The Box office is down 33% this year compared to 2019 numbers but the Minions Movie "Rise of Gru" gave the movie making industry hope. The 5th installment of the Despicable Me series brought in $125M over the 4th of July weekend which is a new record for the holiday. 

 

850,000 jobs were created in the US economy in the month of June. Another good sign that a recession may not be inevitable. 

 

Joey Chestnut won the Nathans 4th of July hotdog eating contest for the 15th time (Tom Brady and Michael Jordan are even jealous of Joey's dominance). Chestnut ate 63 hotdogs and buns in under 10 minutes and that is still 11 hotdogs shy of his world record of 74.

 

Dr. Michael Burry, the guy who predicted the 2008 crash 2 years in advance, is now predicting another historic crash. Watch a video diving into the predictions HERE. Essentially Dr. Burry is saying that the current state of the economy is depleting the savings of consumers and therefore hurting the profits of businesses which will lead to more and more downturns in the market.

 

Investing Tip: Keep your long-term Investments and your trading portfolio completely separate. Do not let one inform the other. Long-term investments are a wealth building strategy and short-term trading is more of a sport that can build wealth if you are good at it. Keeping them separate will keep you in the right state of mind when looking at each individually.