The three major indexes advance today as investors cheer the latest developments in Washington D.C.. This morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said lawmakers reached a deal to extend the government’s debt limit through the beginning of December. The issue of the debt ceiling has been causing gyrations in the markets in the past days. Certainly, the market is taking some comfort.

All sectors are in green with Materials leading.

Oil prices reversed some of Wednesday’s losses, with WTI futures gaining more than 1%, currently at $78.26.

The oil patch isn't what it used to be, and that's a shame considering all the progress we’ve made to be energy independent. Lack of investments, especially in big projects; and limited drilling means higher prices now, but limited profits in the future.

This creates a dilemma.

You can see how much Energy (XLE) has come down over the years. Each new grouping of years plateauing and tumbling even lower.  The chart is at one of those points right now. I decided to take profits on PXD -some folks had much better entries, or lower costs, than the model portfolio - because the swoons in WTI have been swift to the downside and swifter for equities.

XLE

September Challenge Gray job cuts -84.9% y/y vs. -86.4% last month. Employers announced 52,560 job cuts in Q3, lowest quarterly sum since 2Q97.

• Health Care: 2,673 cuts
• Industrial Goods manufacturers: 2,328
• Warehousing: 1,936
• Services: 1,679
• Technology: 1,546
• Newsroom cuts increased to 1,027 after 0 in August

Particularly within the HealthCare sector, most job cuts were primarily a result of employee’s refusal to be vaccinated.