A persistent trend | Weekly excerpt December 5

A persistent trend is what we have seen not only the past few weeks, but also in the months leading up to it, markets continue to decline, even with occasional "breathers", indices like the S&P 500 have already returned to their 2021 levels, effectively erasing 2022 before even ending as a fiscal year.

While we would like as much as investors to remain positive, the reality is that it appears that a point of consolidation has been reached where even as the economy for workers from white collar to blue collar has settled down, interest rates will potentially continue to rise due to the inferred "resiliency" of the employment level as the week's reports showed.

The change in the U.S. unemployment rate decreased by about 0.1%, there was growth in the financial services, real estate, manufacturing, culture and recreation industries, but unfortunately, the decrease in unemployment was impacted by unemployment in the construction, wholesale and retail trade industries. 

On the one hand, the percentage of women in the labor force has never been higher, but the percentage of men has decreased, especially among men aged 15 to 24.

Despite a time of inflation and recessionary concerns, 263,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy.