What Happened This Week: Quantifying The Pain Of September, Yet Buffett Is Buying

10/01/2022

3 minutes read

2022.10.01 08:48

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Well, let’s just take a moment today and say one final goodbye to September. Here’s your hat, and there’s the door.

The past month saw stocks on a downward tear the likes of which have not been seen since 2009. That’s 13 years ago. Ah, yes, 2009. Do you know why the year rings a bell? It’s because it’s the bracket year of that time known as the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. Yup, that 2009.

But let’s get back to our current little crisis. In the past week, the fell further into a bear market, losing 458 more points on Thursday to close at 29,225. It closed the week at 28,864, down another 1.24% on the day. It also closed the month down about 7%, earning it the designation of being the worst one-month performance since the COVID-19 pandemic threw markets into a tailspin in March of 2020.

Dow Jones Weekly Chart

Source: Investing.com

In fact, all three major U.S. indexes slipped into bear markets.

Yes, September has capped a quarter to forget.

Over on the , gains seen in the summer, which came in around 17%, were wiped out. The S&P has dropped now for three quarters in a row, down nearly 24% so far this year. About two-thirds of the stocks on the index finished the quarter lower.

What To Expect In October

So what will October hold? Well, if past is prelude, it could go either way. Because, according to a report in Barron’s, when the Dow sheds 7% or more in September, the following month only sees slight increases in about 50% of the times.

And despite yesterday’s Index pointing to a rebound in August, the Fed will likely not stray from its inflation-fighting course, keeping to its plan to continue to edge interest rates higher.

October also marks the start to a new earnings season. So brace yourself. The predictions on growth do not look great.

BlackRock analyst and managing director Russ Koesterich has even issued a warning to stay away from U.S. equities.

According to reports, the world’s largest investment manager is telling investors to be very cautious, claiming policy-makers are underestimating the risk of recession.

In a note last week BlackRock stated:

“Many central banks, like the Fed, are still solely focused on pressure to quickly get core inflation back to 2% without fully acknowledging how much economic pain it will take in a world shaped by production constraints.”

Are You Wondering What Warren Buffett Is Up To?

And just in case you were wondering what Warren Buffett was up to this past week, while all of this was going on, he was busy boosting his stake in Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE:).

According to a Reuters report, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:), Buffett’s investment firm, bought 5.99 million shares in the Houston-based oil company between Sept.26 and Sept. 28. The purchase totaled a cool $352 million. It brings his stake in Occidental to 194.4 million shares, which if you do the math, gives his holding a value of about $11.94 billion based on Friday’s closing price of $61.45 a share.

Berkshire now owns just under 21% of Occidental shares.

Occidental shares have almost doubled since the beginning of 2022 ($35.56 on Jan. 1).

Occidental Petroleum Weekly Chart