Moderate CPI Numbers Supercharge Equities On Hump Day – $AAPL $ATOS $DIN $DIS $INVO $SWAV $TSLA $XBI Rise!

Happy Wednesday!

Today’s stock market was one that was full of hope, excitement, and broadly positive returns. A complete opposite experience to the fearful session that we endured on Tuesday. The overwhelmingly positive move came after the CPI report confirmed that prices had come in lower in June than had been expected, at a 8.5% vs. a 9.1% rise, giving a slimmer of hope that the Fed may need to temper their current speed at which they are raising interest rates. The Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report also confirmed a slight .2% rise & the June Wholesale Inventories report showed a 1.8% increase. The yield curve in turn moved lower, but remained inverted as the 10-yr fell 4 basis points to 2.76% & the 2-yr note dropped 9 basis points to close 3.17%. Investors, also received a shot in the arm from oil prices, which also fell to $91.48, -.49%. Note, that the operators of Applebee’s and IHOP, Dine Brands Global (DIN, $75.65, +5.72%) CEO John Peyton, stated that the declining price  of gas will provide welcomed financial relief  to the typical diner & perhaps encourage them to return for a dinner out.

As for the markets this combination proved to be a recipe for higher moves. Large caps, mid caps, small caps, & pretty much anyone wearing any cap saw their investment values go up today. The S&P 500 closed at 4,210.24 (+2.13%) seeing all 11 sectors closing in the green & materials & consumer discretionary sectors rising 2.9% & the communication services and the information technology sectors moving up 2.8% to lead the charge. The Dow ended the session at 33,309.51 (+1.63%).  The growth oriented and tech heavy Nasdaq closed at an even stouter move at 12,854.80 (+2.89%). However, the small caps on the Russell 2000 enjoyed and even better day as it closed at 1,969.25 (+2.95%). With the ‘risk on’ investing theme in play the MicroCaps had a very strong session evidenced by the the iShares Micro-Cap ETF (IWC) closed at $122.51, +3.02%. Not to be outdone, the biotech stocks jumped even more significantly as the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) closed at $93.75, +3.31%. The 52-wk range is $61.78 – $136.61. The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) also closed at $133.04, +2.41%. The 52-range is $104.29 – $177.37. A decent measure of the markets volatility or the CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX) closed up at at $19.74, -9.32% and traded within the range of $19.54 – $20.59. 

Around the money and precious metals’ tree, the U.S. Dollar Index closed at 105.20, -1.11%, while Bitcoin (BTC) rose to $23,947.84, +3.01% over the last 24-hours at the time of this writing. Gold prices closed at $1,795/oz.,-$2/oz. & silver closed at $20.60/oz., +$.07/oz. on the day. Two mining producers closed the day as follows: Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $4.60, +.00% and First Majestic Silver Corp. (AG) closed at $8.45, +1.93%. On Aug. 8, First Majestic announced the release of its 2021 Sustainability Report summarizing the Company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) performance. The Sustainability Report and the Company’s performance indicators follow the Global Reporting Initiative and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board metrics. The report is available for review under the Corporate Responsibility section of First Majestic’s website (www.firstmajestic.com). “In 2021, First Majestic achieved record production of 26.9 million silver equivalent ounces representing a 32% increase compared to the previous year. This record was in part due to our focus on responsible and sustainable mining integrated with our vision to become the world’s largest primary silver producer,” stated Keith Neumeyer, President and CEO. “I strongly believe that our efforts in 2021 demonstrated our commitment to sustainability and to improving lives and communities in our host regions while increasing shareholder value, as well as driving positive changes for society and delivering long-term benefits for all First Majestic stakeholders.”

Economic Reports

On Tuesday, the Q2 unit labor costs report  confirmed an acceleration to the tune of a 10.8% increase. It was slower than Q1’s 12.7% rate, but nevertheless significant and seems to back the Fed’s possible decision to raise rates again in September to combat inflation. However, it was also determined that a 2.5% drop in nonfarm business sector labor productivity occurred. The July NFIB Small Business Optimism report also confirmed a slightly higher moved to 89.9. 

On Wednesday, the CPI report confirmed that prices had come in lower in June than had been expected, at a 8.5% vs. a 9.1% rise, giving a slimmer of hope that the Fed may need to temper their current speed at which they are raising interest rates. The Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report also confirmed a slight .2% rise & the June Wholesale Inventories report showed a 1.8% increase. 

Investing & Inspiration

1. “Success – keeping your mind awake and your desire asleep.” – Walter Scott

2. “If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.” – Tallulah Bankhead

3. “When one must, one can.” – Charlotte Whitton

4. “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” – Epictetus
5. “If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.” – Winston Churchill
6. “Hope is patience with the lamp lit.” – Tertullian
7. “A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.” – Francis of Assisi
8. “With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
9. “Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.” – Anne Frank

10. “I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.” – Albert Einstein

11. Hope is but the dream of those who wake.” – Matthew Prior

12. “The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” – Jean Paul
13. “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” – Confucius

14. “Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.” – George Bernard Shaw

15. “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.” – Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

16. “History is a vast early warning system.” – Norman Cousins 

17. “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.” – John Dryden

18. “The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton
19. “Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aesop
20. “We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
21. “The return we reap from generous actions is not always evident.” – Francesco Guicciardini

22. “Courage is knowing what not to fear.” – Plato

23. “Science may never come up with a better office communication system than the coffee break.” – Earl Wilson

24. “Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.” – James Thurber

25. “If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.” – Hal Borland

26. “We aim above the mark to hit the mark.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

27. “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” – Desmond Tutu

28. “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

29. “Patience is a virtue, and I’m learning patience. It’s a tough lesson.” – Elon Musk

30. “Great things are done when men and mountains meet.” – William Blake

31. “The man who has no imagination has no wings.” – Muhammad Ali

32. “Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil.” – J. Paul Getty

33. “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

34. “Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.” – Samuel Smiles

    “The backbone of surprise is fusing speed with secrecy.” – Carl von Clausewitz

35. “There are no shortcuts in evolution.” – Louis D. Brandeis

36. “I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.” – Leni Riefenstahl
37. “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau
38. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” – Marcus Aurelius
39. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle Onassis
40. “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” – George S. Patton
41. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
42. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson 
43. “It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.” – Aeschylus
44. “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao Tzu
45. “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey
46. “Anything simple always interests me.” – David Hockney
47. “He who angers you conquers you.” – Elizabeth Kenny
48. “Concision in style, precision in thought, decision in life.” – Victor Hugo
49. “The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” – Aldous Huxley
50. “View health as an investment, not an expense.” – John Quelch
51. “The most effective way to do it, is to do it.” – Amelia Earhart
52. “Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
53. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha
54. “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” – Edmund Burke
55. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.”- Eleanor Roosevelt
56. “Success is dependent on effort.” – Sophocles
57. “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” – George Halas
58. “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
59. “And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.” – Black Elk
60. “Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.” – Joseph Hall
61. “You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.” – Maya Angelou
62. “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.” – Clint Eastwood
63. “We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.” – Ray Bradbury
64. “If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.” – Confucius
65. “I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.” – Robert H. Schuller
66. “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Desmond Tutu
67. “It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” – Thomas Sowell
68. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha”
69. Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” –  Boris Pasternak
70. “Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.” – Khalil Gibran 
71. “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” – Bruce Lee
72. “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
73. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” –  Colin Powell
74. “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Gandhi
75. “Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.” – Allen Klein
76. “Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” – W. Clement Stone
77. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
78. “In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.” – Albert Einstein
79. “Life is too short for long-term grudges.” – Elon Musk
80. “There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.” – Henry Kissinger
81. “Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.” – Oliver Goldsmith
82. “The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
83. “Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war that we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living.” – Omar N. Bradley
84. “Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.” – Rumi
85. “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” – Ernest Hemingway
86. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
87. “Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.” – Nelson Mandela
88. “The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future.” – John Maynard Keynes
89. “A successful society is characterized by a rising living standard for its population, increasing investment in factories and basic infrastructure, and the generation of additional surplus, which is invested in generating new discoveries in science and technology.” – Robert Trout
90. “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” – Albert Einstein
91. “It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.” – Blaise Pascal
92. “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” – W. Edwards Deming
93. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
94. “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” – Abraham Lincoln
95. “Without investment there will not be growth, and without growth there will not be employment.” – Muhtar Kent
96. “You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.” – Abraham Lincoln
97. “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” – John F. Kennedy
98. “Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!” – Donna Karan
99. “It’s crazy how fast time flies and how things progress.” – Nathan Chen
100. “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” – Albert Einstein
101. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
102. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius
103. “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.” – John C. Maxwell
104. “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” – Helen Keller
105. “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” – Charles Darwin
106. “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” – Michelangelo
107. “Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” – Thor Heyerdahl
108. “I like to encourage people to realize that any action is a good action if it’s proactive and there is positive intent behind it.” – Michael J. Fox
109. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” – Audrey Hepburn
110. “But investment in space stimulates society, it stimulates it economically, it stimulates it intellectually, and it gives us all passion.” – Bill Nye
111. “Bitcoin, in the short or even long term, may turn out be a good investment in the same way that anything that is rare can be considered valuable. Like baseball cards. Or a Picasso.” – Andrew Ross Sorkin
112. “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” – Charlie Chaplin
113. “No matter what you’re going through, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and it may seem hard to get to it but you can do it and just keep working towards it and you’ll find the positive side of things.” – Demi Lovato
114. “Infrastructure investment in science is an investment in jobs, in health, in economic growth and environmental solutions.” – Oren Etzioni
115. “Educating our children and giving them the skills they need to compete in a global economy is a smart investment in our country’s future.” – Sheldon Whitehouse
116. “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.” – Sun Tzu
117. “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
118. “Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.” – Franz Liszt
119. “The sofa is a really important investment for anybody, and I don’t mean financially. You need to find a really great sofa that can transition with you, and you can build from there.” – Jeremiah Brent
120. “There is no investment you can make which will pay you so well as the effort to scatter sunshine and good cheer through your establishment.” – Orison Swett Marden
121. “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie
122. “There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.” – Louis XIV
123. “In tennis, you strike a ball just after the rebound for the fastest return. It’s the same with investment.” – Masayoshi Son
124. “A camel makes an elephant feel like a jet plane.” – Jackie Kennedy
125. “The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.” – Bill Gates
126. “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” – Confucius, Chinese 
127. “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Edward Everett Hale
128. “Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”– Albert Einstein
129. “Education is not only a ladder of opportunity, but it is also an investment in our future.” – Ed Markey
130. “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” – Samuel Johnson
131. “In my view, the biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital. Not only is the mere drop in stock prices not risk, but it is an opportunity. Where else do you look for cheap stocks?” – Li Lu
132. “A successful society is characterized by a rising living standard for its population, increasing investment in factories and basic infrastructure, and the generation of additional surplus, which is invested in generating new discoveries in science and technology.” – Robert Trout
133. “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
134. “Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.” – Elie Wiesel
135. “Investing in women’s lives is an investment in sustainable development, in human rights, in future generations – and consequently in our own long-term national interests.” – Liya Kebede
136. “Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.” – Mike Ditka
137. “No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must set your sights on a higher one.” – Jessica Savitch 
138. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”– Arthur Ashe
139. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
140. “The amount of work and the amount of both physical and emotional investment it takes to get to the top.” – Drew Bledsoe