Happy Friday from BMWM! 

Winter is coming! By now most of you have experienced the first snowfall of the year. Make sure you keep warm and maybe enjoy a nice hot beverage.

We experienced equity market selling pressure throughout the week as investors digested earnings from major U.S. retailers and technology companies. However, U.S. retail spending continues to surprise, beating expectations ahead of the holiday season. Reports indicate Canadian inflation is in line with expectations, so a 25 bps rate hike in December remains probable. We continue to monitor earnings, consumer, and economic data as we head into the holiday spending season.

The Current Account (click here to read) features Joe Biden and Xi Jinping showing a desire to improve U.S.-China ties, Kids’ pain medicine expected to return to store shelves within weeks, Jeff Bezos planning to give the bulk of his wealth to charity during his lifetime, and crypto exchanges scrambling to reassure clients after the collapse of FTX. 

News for this week includes NASA launching its Artemis mission to the moon. The agency's 4.1 billion dollar rocket lifted Wednesday morning—a historic leap forward for its space program. The 322-foot-tall space rocket is the most powerful ever built by NASA and is set for an uncrewed journey around the moon and back, allowing the agency to perform critical tests of its systems. Eventually, the Artemis program will put the first woman and the first person of color on the moon which is paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a stepping stone to send astronauts to Mars.

 

Taylor’s word of the week is Populous, meaning “having a large population; densely populated”. Relatedly, the UN announced that the world’s population reached 8 billion on Tuesday. 

 

Have a great weekend,

Brenda, Matt P, Taylor, and Matty