This week on the One Minute Retirement Tip podcast, I’m going in depth into our quarterly update that we send to our clients to discuss the current economic and market environment as we enter the last quarter of 2021. 

Today, I’m talking about what’s driving the stock market right now. 

Despite a strong start to the quarter in July and August, September was a challenging month for stocks with the S&P 500 down nearly 5% in September. Most of that downturn came near the end of the month when uncertainty about the debt ceiling and some surprises on deadlocks with Democrats over a couple of big spending bills spooked stocks. 

As of this recording, it’s still uncertain whether Congress will raise the debt ceiling. They have until next Monday to do it, and there’s a lot of politicians playing with fire here, trying to use it as a leverage point, which is concerning. I do think a catastrophe will be avoided and we won’t have a government shutdown, but there’s still uncertainty about taxes and government spending, as well as supply-chain bottlenecks, labor shortages, and the Delta variant. Adding to investors' concerns are worries about persistent higher inflation. 

So there’s a lot that can potentially weigh on the stock market for the next few months, and none of these issues are going away anytime soon. Some recent data suggests that supply chain issues are actually getting worse. I can attest to this firsthand, as I am still waiting for a washer and dryer that I ordered in July. In the meantime, I’m having to do laundry at the neighbor’s house for hopefully not too much longer. 

So I think it’s possible that these issues continue to weigh on markets, but the good news is that new covid cases from the Delta variant appear to have peaked in September, so if that can lead to a return to normalcy, then some of these supply chain and labor shortage issues should improve with time. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip. 

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