Nvidia's market cap reached new heights, surpassing Microsoft and Apple and driving the S&P 500 to new records. The author questions whether this rally can be sustained and compares it to the Bitcoin hype of 2021/2022.

The Federal Reserve didn’t raise rates last week but left the door open for one more rate hike in the final two meetings of 2023. This was widely expected, but markets still didn’t like Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments in his post-meeting press conference.

Stocks closed lower last week, even as the latest data shows the U.S. is still doing well from an economic standpoint. Not a lot of new numbers were released, but the ones that were generally surprised on the upside.

The sad truth remains that we’ve had nearly zero growth this year, coupled with extremely high inflation exacerbated by high energy costs. At the same time, interest rates are moving steadily upward and adding to the misery. It’s not exactly a recipe for a robust and healthy economy, and we don’t need to see two or three quarters of negative growth to confirm we are in a recession (or, at minimum, a stagflationary environment)

Markets kept sliding downward last week, as Hurricane Ian battered Florida and the Nord Stream pipelines sprung leaks. The human and economic impact from the hurricane on Florida will be significant, but we don’t know the full effects. Suffice it to say that it will take a while for the state to recover.

THE WEEK IN REVIEW: Sept. 5 - 11
• Markets dropped every day last week
• Taking a bite out of Apple
• U.S. marks the 20-year anniversary of 9/11