Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of February 21, 2018

Article Excerpt

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that “The drop in the stock market may be the start of a widely awaited correction. I strongly doubt that it’s the start of a bear market or long-term falling trend.” I’m sticking with that opinion. It seems matters are progressing as they usually do in a correction. Media commentators, under pressure to fill air time, video commitments and so on, are dwelling on vaguely worrisome statistics that might—just might—be early signs of an emerging ominous pattern. But with a closer look, these worrisome numbers seem more like meaningless statistical noise. For instance, last week’s U.S. consumer price index report showed that prices rose 0.5% overall in January, and were up 0.349% when excluding food and energy. That’s the biggest one-month increase since March 2005, nearly 13 years ago. Looking at it in isolation, you may take the comparison to mean that inflation has surged. But if you put it in perspective, it looks more…