MidSouth Week in Review
July 9, 2021

Weekly Update from Fund Manager Buzz Heidtke, MidSouth Investment Fund

The S&P, Dow and NASDAQ all made new highs during the holiday shortened week, with the S&P being up 0.4% for the week.  30-year mortgage rates declined to 2.90% from 2.98% and the 15-year dropped to 2.20% from 2.26%.  The mortgage rates declined because the yield on the 10-year government bonds declined this week to 1.33% from 1.78% earlier in the year.  Oil rose to $77 a barrel on Tuesday and the average cost of a gallon of gas in Illinois rose to $3.36.  AAA expects gas to rise 20 cents by August.  The declining interest rates caused the Regional Bank Index (KRE) to decline 7.5% over the first three days of the week before recovering.  Consumer borrowing is on the upswing as demand for auto loans and leases, general purpose credit cards and personal loans rose 39% in April, according to Equifax.  Sources:  Wall Street Journal and New York Times

BuzzBits

Stock Market Returns – from 1926 to 2020, stock portfolios had a 10.3% average return and had positive returns in 70 of the 95 years.  The old standby 60-40 portfolio returned 9.1%.  A 100% bond portfolio had a 6.1% average annual return – New York Times

Mississippi Road Sign – If you can read this, you aren’t from Mississippi – Jay Leno

The Big Gainers – for 1-year: Small-Cap Value 74.5%, Midcap Growth 57.0%, Small-Cap Growth 53.1%.  The biggest 5-year gainers:  Large-Cap Growth 22.4%, Midcap Growth 20.9%, Small-Cap Growth 20.2% - Wall Street Journal

Covid Deaths – 99.2% or 124 of 125 of recent Covid deaths involved unvaccinated people – Dr. Anthony Fauci ….. Children make up 24% of new Covid cases vs. only 2% in March – USA TODAY

National Debt – piles up after coronavirus, rising to $65,530 per person from $47,134 in 2020 and $18,021 in 2000.  $65,530 in dollar bills stacked would be 22’9” high – USA TODAY

Working From Home – In a survey of 1,000 U.S. business owners, 45% reported that their companies aren’t getting as much done while their employees are working from home – Digital.com

Spelling Bee Champs – Every year, about 11 million kids participate in school-level spelling bees.  Since 2008, a South Asian American child has always been the crowned champion.  This year nine of the eleven finalists are of South Asian descent – New York Times

Selling Your Home – Find the right agent to work with.  Repair any glaring issues.  Finally, declutter so it’s more appealing.  The three best days to sell are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which result in $1,700 more for your home, plus they sell nearly two days faster – Redfin ….. Of the 311 homes sold in Nashville in June that were listed between $200,000 and $300,000, 235 were sold after a week or less on the market and were sold at an average of $8,819 above the asking price.  Only 24 of the homes were sold below the asking price – J.R. Lind

College Applications – at selective schools have soared by 21%.  Why?  Because many selective schools have announced they are going “test-optional” and wouldn’t require SAT or ACT scores for applicants – USA TODAY

Robinhood – The stock-trading app announced plans to go public last week.  Their customer base of amateur traders helped them to get skyrocketed revenues last year, followed by major losses in the 1Q – New York Times ….. 81% of Robinhood’s 1Q revenue came from placing security orders to high-speed trading firms, a practice known as payment for order flow – Wall Street Journal

Doctored Baseballs – The average pitcher this season is striking out one in every four batters, on par with all-time greats such as Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan.  The league batting average is .237, the second lowest in MLB’s 146-year history vs. .270 during the height of the steroids era – THE WEEK

Weather Viewership – Because CNN, MSNBC and Fox News viewership declined 38% for the first half of 2021, Fox Weather will debut a 24-hour streaming channel, that will do 7-day forecasts – New York Times ….. A Pew Research survey found that 59% of Republicans and 91% of Democrats believe that human activity contributes to climate change.

New Business – In May there were 500,219 apps for new businesses, the second highest on record – NPR.org

TV – During Covid last year, the average viewing peaked as 3 hours, 33 minutes but is expected to fall by 40 minutes by 2023 as people are getting out of the house more – The Kiplinger Letter

NOT A WORD WAS SPOKEN – https://www.youtube.com/embed/uoABty_zE00?rel=0

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