Shhhh…don’t tell anyone, I have a dirty little secret. Are you ready? Are you sure? The world is not going to end…really.

Despite lingering trade concerns (see Trump Hits China with Tariffs on $200 Billion in Goods), Elon Musk being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for tweeting his controversial intentions to take Tesla Inc. (TSLA) private, and Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, facing scandalous sexual assault allegations when he was in high school, life goes on. In the face of these heated headlines, stocks still managed to rise to another record in September (see Another Month, Another Record). For the month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed +1.9% (+7.0% for 2018), the S&P 500 notched a +0.4% gain (+9.0% for 2018), while the hot, tech-laden Nasdaq index cooled modestly by -0.8% after a scorching +17.5% gain for the year.

If the world were indeed in the process of ending and we were looking down into the abyss of another severe recession, we most likely would not see the following tangible and objective facts occurring in our economy.

  • New Revamped NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) 2.0 trade deal between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada was finalized (the new deal is called United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement).
  • Leading Economic Indicators are at a record high (a predictive statistic that historically falls before recessionary periods – in gray)

    • Source: Yardeni.com

  • Unemployment Rate of 3.9% is near a record low
  • Small Business Optimism is near record highs
  • Consumer Confidence is near record highs

    • Source: Scott Grannis

  • Corporate Profits are at record highs
  • Interest Rates remain at historically low levels despite the Federal Reserve’s actions to slowly migrate their interest rate target higher
  • Economic Growth (GDP) accelerating to +4.2% growth rate in the recent quarter
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