In this episode, Scott discusses 10 stories we are following today.

1.The markets finished up Friday with the S&P 500 finishing up .56%, the Nasdaq up .31% and the Dow up .41%.

2. The S&P 500 index after a solid week last week is now up 3.4% YTD and down 17% from its 2022 high.

3. Futures point up so far this morning. We will see if that holds.

4. Oil is near $70 a barrel, the 10 year treasury is around 3.38%, the 1 year is up slightly at 4.38%, Bitcoin is near $28000 and Cannabis stocks based on the CNBS ETF are down 62% over the last 52 weeks and 17% YTD.

5. Bitcoin is down 40% over the last 52 weeks. One year ago it was at $46820. Two years ago it was near $69000. YTD it’s up 68%.

6. Bloomberg “Fed preferred inflation gauge seen staying elevated.” Here the article notes that the Fed and Jerome Powell closely watch the “Personal expenditures consumption price index” or PCE index. This is expected to be up again .4% this past month or close to 5% year over year. The Fed’s goal is 2%. The PCE is similar to the CPI but excludes housing and fuel costs. At the end of the day, analysts may state that this running at 4 to 5% is too high while one might counter that it is serious improvement from what it was running at a year ago.

7. Fed Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari says the the bank situation has led the US one bit closer to inflation.

8. Ford CEO says that the mining and refining of batteries and the battery supply chain is the limiting factor in producing more EVs.

9. Tesla is up 76% YTD.

10. First Republic Bank