The Long Term Investor

Good stuff Smokie.

 

Basically not very worthwhile data....just a "poll".....but if you care.

US consumer confidence rises further in November

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/us-consumer-confidence-rises-further-151926365.html

 

The cooking has begun at our house. Two dips....hamburger dip and artichoke dip.... are done and in the fridge. They will be joined by various chips and crackers, deviled eggs, mixed nuts, olives, and cheese....as starters.

Drinks to start will include Crown Royal and Watermelon Margaritas.....for the drinkers. There will also be Eggnog, Sparking Cider.......and....various Dublin soft drinks, Big Red, Dr pepper, etc, etc, etc.

Pumpkin pie is cooking right now. Tonight I will bake my Pecan pie. A Coconut Cream pie sits in the fridge. Mashed potatoes and green bean casserole will be assembled today and go into the fridge to cook on Thursday.

It will be a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year.....with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, baby peas, corn, rolls,......and of course.....CANNED jellied Cranberry sauce.

We tend to rotate through various items as the entree for Thanksgiving and Christmas......Roast Turkey, Prime Rib, Tenderloin Steak, Spiral Sliced Ham.....once in a while.....Lasagna or Ham Loaf.

We will be doing a 21 Lb turkey this year. We cook it in a Roaster Oven on the countertop. This frees up the other ovens........a wall oven, a convection oven, and our stove oven..... that we have for other "stuff". The roaster Oven works great. Easy to clean and it usually cooks the turkey 1-2 hours quicker.

Here is the one we use.....very easy clean-up. It also does a very good jobs of holding in the moisture and self-basting a turkey. There is a rack with handles that allows you to simply lift out a big turkey. We lift out the turkey into a large single use aluminum foil pan for slicing and processing......so no mess and easy clean up......just throw it away. We make the gravy right in the roaster oven. So....all the mess and clean up is very contained.

LOL......I say "WE".....but it is mostly my wife doing the cooking. My primary contribution is cooking one or two pecan pies.....and....doing some potato and carrot pealing and slicing.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hamilton...4?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101357218


I will be slicing an aged Cheddar cheese. The one I will do this year has been aged for five years. I have some.....White Cheddar...... that I have been aging for 16 years. I will probably let them age for 20-25 years.

It will be a full turkey dinner for us and family this year. At Christmas it will be a spiral sliced ham.

 

To continue the above.....the table is set with Sterling silver, crystal glassware and hand made Talavera plates. As usual we will be doing "crackers" at Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.....an annual tradition. Everyone will be siting at dinner wearing the little colored paper crowns that are inside.

 

LOL.....at Christmas we will be doing paper plates due to the number of people that will be here.

 

At this point in the day I have a single stock in the RED......HD. Possibly....... a reaction to the Best Buy earnings.....although the two businesses don't really have much in common.

 

OK.....two Pecan pies in the oven. They should be done in about 10 minutes. That is my focus today.....not....the markets.

Although i looked about five minutes ago and I have a good gain with only 1 stock in the RED.....HD.

 

Welcome to the PLTR club....TireSmoke.

I wish I had bought more......but no money to go into my account and nothing that I want to sell. BUMMER.

 

YEA......a win for me today.......every....stock in the green at the close. It was nice to see NVDA break out of the.....recent red....today. Now we need to string together some positive days.

I also beat the SP500 today by 0.52%.

 

Here is the FED minutes today.....of course this is totally backward looking.

Fed officials see interest rate cuts ahead, but only ‘gradually,’ meeting minutes show

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/11/26/fed...s-ahead-but-only-gradually-minutes-show-.html

(BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content)

"Federal Reserve officials expressed confidence that inflation is easing and the labor market is strong, allowing for further interest rate cuts albeit at a gradual pace, according to minutes from the November meeting released Tuesday.

The meeting summary contained multiple statements indicating that officials are comfortable with the pace of inflation, even though by most measures it remains above the Fed’s 2% goal.

With that in mind, and with conviction that the jobs picture is still fairly solid, Federal Open Market Committee members indicated that further rate cuts likely will happen, though they did not specify when and to what degree.

“In discussing the outlook for monetary policy, participants anticipated that if the data came in about
as expected, with inflation continuing to move down sustainably to 2 percent and the economy
remaining near maximum employment, it would likely be appropriate to move gradually toward a more neutral stance of policy over time,” the minutes said.

The FOMC voted unanimously at the meeting to take down its benchmark borrowing rate by a quarter percentage point to a target range of 4.5%-4.75%. Markets expect the Fed could cut again in December, though conviction has waned among concerns that President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for tariffs could stoke inflation higher.

The meeting concluded two days after the contentious presidential election campaign resulted in the Republican emerging as the victor and set to begin serving his second term in January.
There was no mention of the election in the minutes, save for a staff notation that stock market volatility rose before the Nov. 5 results and fell after. There also was no discussion of the implications of fiscal policy, despite anticipation that Trump’s plans, which also include lower taxes and aggressive deregulation, could have substantial economic impacts.

However, members did note a general level of uncertainty about how conditions are evolving. In addition, they expressed uncertainty over where the rate cuts would need to stop before the Fed hit a “neutral” interest rate that neither boosts nor restrains growth.

“Many participants observed that uncertainties concerning the level of the neutral rate of interest complicated the assessment of the degree of restrictiveness of monetary policy and, in their view, made it appropriate to reduce policy restraint gradually,” the minutes said.

Conflicting signals on inflation and the uncertainty over Trump’s policies have caused traders to scale back their outlook for interest rate cuts ahead. The market-implied probability of a rate trim in December has drifted below 60%, with an expectation of just three-quarters of a percentage point in reductions through the end of the 2025.

Committee members appeared to spend much of the meeting talking about progress on inflation and a generally stable economic outlook.

Policymakers in recent days have expressed confidence that current inflation readings are being boosted by shelter cost increases that are expected to slow as the pace of rent rises eases and makes its way through the data.

“Almost all participants judged that, though month-to-month movements would remain volatile, incoming data generally remained consistent with inflation returning sustainably to 2 percent,” the document said.
“Participants cited various factors likely to put continuing downward pressure on inflation, including waning business pricing power, the Committee’s still-restrictive monetary policy stance, and well-anchored longer-term inflation expectations,” it added.

Policymakers had been expressing concern about the labor market. Nonfarm payrolls rose only 12,000 in October, though the meager gain has been attributed primarily to storms in the Southeast and labor strikes.

Officials indicated that the state of the labor market is generally solid.

“Participants generally noted … that there was no sign of rapid deterioration in labor market conditions, with layoffs remaining low,” the minutes said."

MY COMMENT

Whatever....who cares about the FED. Not only is this backward looking......the last thing I care about as an investor is the FED. They are not going to have anything to do with what I own, if I buy or if I sell. It is all about earnings and fundamentals....over the long term.

 

Good news......but......time will tell if it really means anything. At least it shows how things are quickly...."evolving"...in the Middle East......NOW.

What we know about Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2d3gj9ewxo

 

It will be a long trip to our house for LORI and RG. Looks like I will have to go out and get some more.....crackers. We cant have anyone siting around without a paper crown on their head.

I am sure Lori knows about crackers.

With this entire board on the way....we might have to serve in two shifts.