Monthly Market Debrief

Welcome to our first Monthly Market Debrief! The goal is to provide a quick update on the market at the top of each month. We will also include a short current event that occurred from the past month. We will return to answering all questions about personal finance for the following weeks. If there is a detail or aspect of the economy you want to hear more about or think this letter is missing, let us know!

Market Snapshot

The stock market rallied with the October inflation report showing continued improvement on lowering inflation.

Normally, charts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics put me to sleep faster than a dad on the couch after golf, but this month’s charts just got better and better!

Markets were excited that improving inflation numbers meant the Fed might halt its interest rate hikes, but Walmart had to come in and pour cold water on the situation.

Company Highlight - Walmart (WMT)

While the Indexes shot up in November, Walmart took a dive into the red after warning investors that it expects profits to come up short of estimates. They blamed consumers for spending less amid the tightening economic situation. However, right before writing this, I read about the record setting $9.8 billion in online sales for Black Friday. So maybe the consumer is just favoring the contactless ease of Amazon over the people-watching of Walmart. Nevertheless, consumer spending will be a highly watched number as we listen to Mariah Carey and buy Yankee Candles for all our relatives this holiday season.

Current Event - Sam Altman, OpenAI

If you didn’t know who Sam Altman was before November, you probably heard his name a few times by now. Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. 

On Friday, November 17th, the Board of Directors of OpenAI fired Sam Altman for reasons we still do not know.

On Sunday, November 19th, Sam had announced that he accepted a position at Microsoft leading their AI division. 

On Monday, November 20th, nearly every employee at OpenAI signed a letter threatening to quit and join Microsoft if Sam did not return and the board was not fired. 

On Tuesday, November 21st, Sam Altman was back as the CEO and all members of the Board that fired him, were fired. Pretty insane switcheroo.

All the board has said about the reason for firing Sam is that Sam was poorly communicating with the board about current operations at the company. OpenAI was initially founded as a non-profit organization dedicated to studying AI and the dangers associated with it. After splitting with their biggest donor (Elon Musk), they converted to a for-profit company to raise more money. There is speculation that the board had concerns about new, developing technology, and Sam had strayed from the original goal of OpenAI. However, this is all speculation. 

If you want to read more, this NPR article goes more in depth. 

Debrief on Deck

Next week, Mike is going to talk about Life Insurance. He is going to answer all your questions about Whole and Term Life Insurance like “how do I get this life insurance salesman out of my spare bedroom?” and “why are there term limits on my life insurance but not on elected officials?” Okay, maybe not that last one.