MidSouth Week in Review
October 4, 2024

Weekly Update from Fund Manager Buzz Heidtke, MidSouth Investment Fund

For the week the S&P was up 0.5% and the year it is up 21.3%.  U.S. economy added 254,000 jobs in September. The U.S. economy added 107,00 more jobs than expected last month. Unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, below expectations of 4.2%. Wholesale gas was up 9% this week from its low of $1.95 a week ago. Jimmy Carter the 39^th U.S. president turned 100 year this week.

S&P - rallied 20.8% in the first 3 quarters of 2024 posting its biggest gain since 1997.  Last week the S&P 500 hit its 43rd all-time high this year. The index had the best start to a presidential election year in history - Barrons

Home Buying – U. S.  homebuyers need to earn an annual income of $115,454 to afford the median priced home ($433,101)-Redfin

U.S. Debt – U. S. public debt has jumped $345 billion over the past 3 days hitting another record of $35.7 trillion. The national debt has outpaced the economic growth by 2.7 times over the last 16 months -The Kobeissi Letter

Stocks - October tends to be a weak month for stocks in an election year, not to mention stocks are higher 10 of the past 11 months.  But note October hasn't been lower two years in a row for 15 years (it was down last year) – Ryan Derick

Gold – We raised our gold price forecast from $2,700/toz to $2,900/toz for early 2025 – Goldman Sachs

The material was prepared by MidSouth Investment Management LLC, and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates.  This information has been derived from sources believed to be accurate.  Please note – investing involves risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results.  The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services.  If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional.  This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty.  This is neither a solicitation nor recommendation to put through a regular purchase or sell any investment or insurance product or service, and should not be relied upon as such.  This material represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events, or a guarantee of future results.  Investments will fluctuate and when redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested.  All economic and performance data is historical and not indicative of future results.  Market indices discussed are unmanaged.  Investors cannot invest in unmanaged indices.