Major indices started on a winning note, erasing some of the losses from last week that sent the S&P 500 into correction territory. Buying efforts have faded a bit with the major indices pulling back from the opening levels.

The Russell 2000 hit the lowest levels since November 2020 when the pandemic was still an ongoing problem.

On the economic front, the Fed Dallas business conditions continued to worsen in October, marking its 17^th straight month of negative readings.

Respondents were mostly downbeat.

• Six months from now is actually quite scary. The economy is uncertain, and customers cannot predict with any certainty what they see. Political pressure and the wars are now forcing customers to reevaluate their business activities and reduce their outlook. It’s very uncertain.
• In a consumer business, we are hearing a lot more “I can’t afford this” than we ever have before.
• Business has slowed down significantly; we see no signs of improvement in business activity.
• With the unrest in the Middle East, there is now additional global uncertainty and about how it will impact the U.S. and overall global economy. There is limited optimism; we will see a very slow recovery in the first quarter depending on the global impacts of additional conflict.
• We are off by 20 percent this year so far. I don’t expect it to get better. Prices of goods are going up. Shipping is going up.

Nine sectors are in the green, led by Communication Services and Consumer Staples. Energy continues to struggle with oil down 3%, despite the war ongoing in the Middle East.