According to a recent article, in November 2021, used car prices jumped up 44% compared to a year earlier. In December 2021, J.D. Power estimated that the average used car price hit $30,000 compared to about $23,000 the previous year. Amazing. The cost of new cars is also soaring, averaging $46,000.
In early April of this year, more than 700 container ships were waiting to get into the ports of Shanghai, China. The average number of boats waiting to unload in Shanghai over the last few years was closer to 200. A significant reason for this upward spike is the recent Chinese COVID crackdown, forcing people to stay at home again. The graph below was published recently by “Fortune” magazine. The red-colored spike shows the dramatic increase in ships waiting at the port this April.
The Standard and Poor’s, or S&P 500, stocks officially went into bear market territory this week, which is now front-page news. The S&P has just over 500 stocks and, as a stock index, is more representative of the market overall than the Nasdaq or the Dow. The definition of a bear market is when a stock Index drops 20% below recent highs. The S&P peaked on January 3, 2022. On Monday of the week of June 13, the market closed down 21.8% from its peak. That means we are about 5 ½ months into an official bear market.
