🦉 This Week in the Markets

A 4-Minute Recap

Author

Al Atencio
August 08, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

Its been a wild week:

Big volatility finally hit the stock market after a tranquil first half of the year. It was ugly in Japan. Warren Buffet dropped 50% of his stake in Apple. And an important recession signal was triggered.

Weekday Reads

1) If you want to know all the details about the commotion that happened read this overview by the Carson Group’s Chief Market Strategist

10 Talking Points About the Recent Volatility

“The stock market is a giant distraction from the business of investing.” -John Bogle It might not feel like it, but stocks were having one of their strongest and least volatile years ever just a few weeks ago. Now it feels like each day has more worries and more volatility. To help, we put together …

2) On Tuesday, the Japanese stock market had its worst day since 1987.

3) Berkshire Hathaway sold 50% of its Apple holdings. Adding to the vibes spooking market sentiment. Berkshire now sits on more T-Bills than the Fed 🤯 .

Although a record cash pile in absolute terms, Berkshire historically holds around the equivalent of 30% of its market cap in cash and T-bills. Even by selling the apple stake this number stands at around 34%. So maybe not as significant?

4) The famous Sahm recession Rule was triggered. It’s never had a false positive since 1970, but it’s creator says this time might actually be different.

Charts

The VIX (a measure of the S&P 500’s volatility) had it’s 3rd biggest spike since 1990.

The Nikkei 225, Japan’s flagship index dropped more than 12%, its worst performance since Black Monday.

And finally, some parting wisdom:

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