MidSouth Week in Review
May 26, 2023

Weekly Update from Fund Manager Buzz Heidtke, MidSouth Investment Fund

For the week the S&P was up 2.7%.  The Dow was up 1.0% today after being down each of the first four days of the week.  The Dollar hit a two-month high at 104 after nearly dropping below 100 in April.  Stocks fell as the debt ceiling negotiations continue.  Biden appears to be close to getting a deal to raise the $31.4 billion debt limit.  Twenty million Americans are behind on their utility bills.    The stock market will be closed on Monday in observance of Memorial Day.  Sources:  Wall Street Journal and New York Times

The S&P 500 – If you remove META, AMZN, MSFT, AAPL, GOOGL, NVDA and TSLA from the S&P 500, the index is up just 1% this year.  These 7 stocks alone in an index are up 44% this year.  This means that the remaining 493 companies in the S&P 500 are up just 1% YTD.  All while the S&P 500 is up 9% YTD – Hemanth Kumar

AT&T – has declined from 20.50 in January to 15.00 this week.  The stock yields 7.3% and is selling at 6.4+ estimated earnings – Buzz

Puberty – In the 1990s, the average age for a girl to start puberty was around 11.  Now many girls start puberty around 8 to 10 and some by 7 – New York Times

Office Stocks – are plummeting as vacancies rise and rents fall.  Since the start of 2020, shares of office REITs have declined 48% vs. 37% increase from the S&P 500 – New York Times

Mortgages – If you had a home with a 3%, $500,000 mortgage, your monthly payments would be around $2,108.  If you bought another home with the same mortgage at a current (7.2%) rate, your monthly payment would be 61% higher at $3,394 – Jay Kumar

President Biden’s Reelection Campaign – His approval rating (42.3%) is roughly on path with that of Donald Trump.   By contrast, Barack Obama (50.9%), George Bush (65.4%) and Bill Clinton (53.1%) all had higher approval ratings than Biden does before winning reelection – The Kiplinger Letter

Marijuana – The number of workers testing positive jumped to 7.3% in 2022, the highest since 1997, according to an analysis of Quest Diagnostics of more than 9.2 million drug tests last year – HRD

Financial Success – 1 in 4 Americans are not doing OK financially, a Fed survey shows.  Some 73% of adults were doing OK financially as of October, down 5% from a year earlier.  The 2022 numbers are the lowest since 2016 – Federal Reserve

Gainers For The Year – Bitcoin 64.2%, NASDAQ 21.3%, S&P 8.1%, Gold 7.9%, Russell 2000 -0.4%, Dow -1.2%, Oil -5.9% - ExecSum

0% Tax Rate – Married couples filing joint returns will pay a 0% tax rate on their long term capital gains as long as their taxable income is no higher than $89,250, up from $83,350 in 2022 – Maryann Reyes, CPA

Home Sales – If you profit from the sale of your home you can exclude the first $250,000 of the profit from taxes.  For married couples filing jointly, the number increases to $500,000.

Banks – are tightening standards for commercial and industrial loans.  According to one survey nearly 46% of banks pulled back lending to large and medium businesses, while nearly 47% did so for small – The Kiplinger Letter

Same-Sex Couples – and partnerships account for about 1% of households vs. 0.5% in 2020, according to newly released figures from the decennial census.

Martin Luther King – Today, almost 1,000 cities and towns have streets named in his honor, and more than 100 public schools bear his name.  King was assassinated in Memphis in 1968 at age 39 – Wall Street Journal

Banking – is a confidence game and depositors in regional banks have lost confidence.  They’re draining the banks of their capital and sending them into insolvency because they don’t know what they’re backing now, such as increasingly depressed commercial real estate – Charles Gasparino, New York Post.

Unbelievable – In all of 2022, just nine gun-related incidents were reported in Japan, which has a population of 125 million people, according to the National Police Agency – New York Times

Major Retailers – According to UBS, over 50,000 retail locations may shutter in the coming months.  Major retailers like Walmart, Foot Locker, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Macy’s have already announced store closures.  Recently, Bob Nardelli, the former CEO of Home Depot, issued a stark warning:  “We’re going to witness a significant number of bankruptcies.  This situation is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 52 years” - TUN

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Funny Dog - https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrQhJt5Omt-/?igshid=NjZiM2M3MzIxNA%3D%3D

Laughing Baby - https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cpu17y0t05I/?igshid=NjZiM2M3MzIxNA==

Cute Girls Dancing - https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cqh2tm1AeFq/?igshid=NjZiM2M3MzIxNA==

The material was prepared by MidSouth Investment Management LLC, and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates.  This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate.  Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results.  The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services.  If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional.  This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty.  This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such.  This material represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events, or a guarantee of future results.  Investments will fluctuate and when redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested.  All economic and performance data is historical and not indicative of future results.  Market indices discussed are unmanaged.  Investors cannot invest in unmanaged indices.