Retailers Lead The Stock Market Lower On Hump Day – $AAPL $ATOS $BBBY $INVO $LMFA $MANU $VIX Rise!

Happy Hump Day!

I hope that your day has proceeded in a profitable manner once again.

As for the stock market on Wednesday, it was an overall red sort of session across the board that seemed to be deflated throughout the session by somber reports from individual retailers i.e. Target (TGT, $175.34, -2.7%) that failed to meet quarterly expectations and a data point that somewhat confirmed that the overall retail picture that had turned worse than expected. In this direction, the U.S. macroeconomic schedule helped further unsettle some growth oriented investors today with the dropping of the total retail sales report that clocked in flat M/M in July. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) finished the day off 2.9%. However, it is interesting to note that when you excluded auto sales, the retail numbers sales actually ticked up .4%, while gasoline station sales dropped a solid 1.8% with the elevated prices of oil. The Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report also confirmed significant 2.3% drop as interest rates have continued to climb overall making housing loans less attractive. The June Business Inventories report also showed a 1.4% increase, but the oil inventories report showed a 7.056M barrel draw. In turn, oil prices rose on Wednesday climbing 2% to close $87.97/bbl. The yield curve moved higher and remained inverted as the 10-yr increased 7 basis points to 2.89% & the 2-yr note moved up 3 basis points to close 3.27%. The Fed’s July 26-27 2022 FOMC Minutes were released today. 

As for the major indices, the S&P 500 closed at 4,274.04 (-.72%) with the the consumer discretionary sector dropping 1.1%. The Dow ended the session lower closing at 33,980.32 (-.50%).  The growth oriented and tech heavy Nasdaq followed suit and closed lower at 12,938.12 (-1.25%). The small caps on the Russell 2000 performed negatively in Concetta it the risk off theme of the day to close back below the 2k level at 1,987.31 (-1.64%). The MicroCaps slid swiftly today as evidenced by the iShares Micro-Cap ETF (IWC) that closed at $123.90, -2.08%. In fashion with the today’s negative sentiment, the biotech stocks also pulled back as the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) closed at $89.57, -3.05%. The 52-wk range is $61.78 – $136.61. The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) also closed at $130.40, -1.95%. The 52-range is $104.29 – $176.02. A decent measure of the markets volatility or the CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX) closed up at $19.90, +1.07% and traded within the range of $19.41 – $20.63. 

Around the money and precious metals’ tree, the U.S. Dollar Index stayed strong and closed at 106.66, +.15%, while Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to $23,331.31, -2.42% over the last 24-hours at the time of this writing. Is Bitcoin a true tell these days as to where investors risk appetite lies? Gold prices closed at $1,766/oz., -$13/oz. & silver closed at $19.82/oz., down $.33/oz. on the day. Two mining producers closed the day as follows: Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $4.25, -6.30% and First Majestic Silver Corp. (AG) closed at $7.68, -5.07%. 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.”

Shares of Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY) moved nicely higher again today to close at $23.08, +11.77% today. Interestingly, Ryan Cohen, Chairman of BBBY, filed a Form 144 (Aug. 16) confirming that his RC Ventures fund plans to sell its entire 11.8% stake with the next 90 days. BTW- did you know that BBBY was up a cool 350% in August? 

Shares of LM Funding America, Inc. (LMFA) , a technology-based specialty finance company with a primary focus on expanding into the cryptocurrency mining business, rose to closes at $1.32, +22.22% after rising to an intraday high of $1.86 trading 5.456M shares of volume. After the close today, LMFA provided a business update and reported financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2022.

Economic Reports

On  Monday, the August Empire State Manufacturing Index came in lower at -31.3 & the August NAHB Housing Market Index came in below expectations at 49.

On Tuesday, the housing starts report for July confirmed a 9.6% M/M drop to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.674M. However, on the positive side, the total industrial production report confirmed a .6% M/M rise in July, while the capacity utilization rate moved up to 80.3%.

On Wednesday, the total retail sales report clocked in flat M/M in July. However, it is interesting to note that when you excluded auto sales, the retail numbers sales actually ticked up .4%, while gasoline station sales dropped a solid 1.8% with the elevated prices of oil. The Weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report also confirmed significant 2.3% drop as interest rates have continued to climb overall making housing loans less attractive. The June Business Inventories report also showed a 1.4% increase, but the oil inventories report showed a 7.056M barrel draw.

Investing & Inspiration

1. “Hitch your wagon to a star.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

2. “The greatest remedy for anger is delay.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

3. “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

4. “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

38. “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

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

40. “I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.” – Leni Riefenstahl
41. “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
42. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” – Marcus Aurelius
43. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle Onassis
44. “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” – George S. Patton
45. “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi
46. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson 
47. “It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.” – Aeschylus
48. “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
49. “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey
50. “Anything simple always interests me.” – David Hockney
51. “He who angers you conquers you.” – Elizabeth Kenny
52. “Concision in style, precision in thought, decision in life.” – Victor Hugo
53. “The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” – Aldous Huxley
54. “View health as an investment, not an expense.” – John Quelch
55. “The most effective way to do it, is to do it.” – Amelia Earhart
56. “Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.” – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
57. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha
58. “Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” – Edmund Burke
59. “You must do the things you think you cannot do.”- Eleanor Roosevelt
60. “Success is dependent on effort.” – Sophocles
61. “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” – George Halas
62. “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
63. “And when I breathed, my breath was lightning.” – Black Elk
64. “Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.” – Joseph Hall
65. “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
66. “If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.” – Clint Eastwood
67. “We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.” – Ray Bradbury
68. “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
69. “I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.” – Robert H. Schuller
70. “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” Desmond Tutu
71. “It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” – Thomas Sowell
72. “Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.” – Buddha”
73. Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.” –  Boris Pasternak
74. “Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.” – Khalil Gibran 
75. “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” – Bruce Lee
76. “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
77. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” –  Colin Powell
78. “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Gandhi
79. “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
80. “Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” – W. Clement Stone
81. “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.” – Henry David Thoreau
82. “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
83. “Life is too short for long-term grudges.” – Elon Musk
84. “There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.” – Henry Kissinger
85. “Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.” – Oliver Goldsmith
86. “The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” – Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
87. “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
88. “Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.” – Rumi
89. “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” – Ernest Hemingway
90. “Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levenson
91. “Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.” – Nelson Mandela
92. “The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future.” – John Maynard Keynes
93. “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
94. “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
95. “It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.” – Blaise Pascal
96. “If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.” – W. Edwards Deming
97. “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
98. “Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.” – Abraham Lincoln
99. “Without investment there will not be growth, and without growth there will not be employment.” – Muhtar Kent
100. “You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.” – Abraham Lincoln
101. “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.” – John F. Kennedy
102. “Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!” – Donna Karan
103. “It’s crazy how fast time flies and how things progress.” – Nathan Chen
104. “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
105. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” – George Bernard Shaw
106. “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius
107. “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
108. “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.” – Helen Keller
109. “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” – Charles Darwin
110. “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
111. “Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” – Thor Heyerdahl
112. “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
113. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” – Audrey Hepburn
114. “But investment in space stimulates society, it stimulates it economically, it stimulates it intellectually, and it gives us all passion.” – Bill Nye
115. “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
116. “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.” – Charlie Chaplin
117. “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
118. “Infrastructure investment in science is an investment in jobs, in health, in economic growth and environmental solutions.” – Oren Etzioni
119. “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
120. “Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.” – Sun Tzu
121. “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
122. “Beware of missing chances; otherwise it may be altogether too late some day.” – Franz Liszt
123. “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
124. “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
125. “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
126. “There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.” – Louis XIV
127. “In tennis, you strike a ball just after the rebound for the fastest return. It’s the same with investment.” – Masayoshi Son
128. “A camel makes an elephant feel like a jet plane.” – Jackie Kennedy
129. “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
130. “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” – Confucius, Chinese 
131. “Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Edward Everett Hale
132. “Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.”– Albert Einstein
133. “Education is not only a ladder of opportunity, but it is also an investment in our future.” – Ed Markey
134. “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” – Samuel Johnson
135. “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
136. “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
137. “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
138. “Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.” – Elie Wiesel
139. “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
140. “Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.” – Mike Ditka
141. “No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must set your sights on a higher one.” – Jessica Savitch 
142. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”– Arthur Ashe
143. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain
144. “The amount of work and the amount of both physical and emotional investment it takes to get to the top.” – Drew Bledsoe