Today's Scoop:

Hey friends - almost Friday. Look out for our Weekly Scoop tomorrow.

Here’s what you need to know today…

1. The stock market just entered a bull market.

2. Layoffs spiked unexpectedly last week.

3. There’s a major shortage of affordable homes.

S&P 500: 4,293.93
1Mo: +4% | 1Yr: +7% | 5Yr: +55%

The stock market floated to a new 2023 high today, breaking into a bull market after rising 20% from last year’s lows. [🤓] The jump in layoffs gave investors hope that policymakers won’t feel the need to raise interest rates next week and restrict business activity further.

Layoffs spiked unexpectedly last week. The Labor Department reported initial jobless claims increased by 28,000 to 261,000, the highest level since October 2021. Previous weeks have consistently been revised down, so we’ll see next week if this is the start of a new trend of higher unemployment.

There is a massive shortage of available homes. A new report from Realtor.com and the National Association of Realtors indicated a steep decline in the percentage of homes that someone making less than $100,000 per year can afford, from about 67% to just 39% in just five years. Overall the supply of homes for sale is about half of what it was in 2019.

Click to dig in & vote your reaction, see how others feel

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• GameStop fires its 5th CEO in 5 years

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Bull & Bear Markets

Bears and bulls are Wall Street's favorite animals. Bearish means pessimistic. Bullish means optimistic. Someone can be bearish on a particular stock or broader market, while another investor can be bullish on the same thing. The market is made up of bulls and bears buying and selling to each other.

Investors also apply those animal terms to general market cycles. A bear market starts when the stock market falls more than 20% from its recent highs. That happened last year. The bull market definition is a little less clear. Some say it starts when the stock market rises 20% from its recent lows. Remember, that doesn’t mean it has recovered to the previous high. That would require a 25% gain (if 100 drops to 80, that 20 to get back to 100 is 25% of 80). So that’s why some prefer to call it a new bull market only after the market makes a new high.

Bull and bear markets don’t really mean anything other than to characterize the general investor sentiment. Since we know short-term stock market moves are all about investors’ emotions, designating a consensus emotion can have compounding effects. It’s easier to be optimistic if you hear everyone’s optimistic.

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