Good Friday evening to all of you here on stocks! I hope everyone on this sub made out pretty nicely in the market this past week, and are ready for the new trading week ahead. :)
Here is everything you need to know to get you ready for the trading week beginning June 5th, 2023.

Dow leaps 700 points on hot jobs report, Nasdaq notches sixth straight winning week: Live updates - (Source)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged Friday as traders cheered a strong jobs report and the passage of a debt ceiling bill that averts a U.S. default.
The 30-stock Dow jumped 701.19 points, or 2.12%, to end at 33,762.76 — its best day since January. The S&P 500 climbed 1.45% to close at 4,282.37. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.07% to 13,240.77, reaching its highest level since April 2022 during the session.
With Friday’s gains, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished the holiday-shortened trading week about 1.8% and 2% higher, respectively. The Dow’s Friday advance pushed it into positive territory for the week, finishing up around 2%. The Nasdaq notched its sixth straight week higher, a streak length not seen for the technology-heavy index since 2020.
Nonfarm payrolls grew much more than expected in May, rising 339,000. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a relatively modest 190,000 increase. It marked the 29th straight month of positive job growth.
Recently strong employment data had been pressuring stocks on the notion it would keep the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. But Friday data also showed average hourly earnings rose less than economists expected year over year, while the unemployment rate was higher than anticipated.
Both data points have given investors hope that the Fed could pause its interest rate hike campaign at the policy meeting later this month, according to Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
“The so-called Goldilocks has entered the house,” Sandven said. “Clearly, on the bullish side, there are signs that inflation is starting to wane, speculation that the Fed is going to move into pause mode, increasing the likelihood of a soft landing.”
Easing concerns around the U.S. debt ceiling also helped sentiment. The Senate passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling late Thursday night, sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk. That comes after the House passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act on Wednesday, just days before the June 5 deadline set by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Lululemon shares popped more than 11% on strong results and a guidance boost, while MongoDB surged 28% on a blowout forecast.

This past week saw the following moves in the S&P:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL S&P TREE MAP FOR THE PAST WEEK!)

S&P Sectors for this past week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE S&P SECTORS FOR THE PAST WEEK!)

Major Indices for this past week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE MAJOR INDICES FOR THE PAST WEEK!)

Major Futures Markets as of Friday's close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE MAJOR FUTURES INDICES AS OF FRIDAY!)

Economic Calendar for the Week Ahead:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ECONOMIC CALENDAR FOR THE WEEK AHEAD!)

Percentage Changes for the Major Indices, WTD, MTD, QTD, YTD as of Friday's close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

S&P Sectors for the Past Week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Major Indices Pullback/Correction Levels as of Friday's close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Major Indices Rally Levels as of Friday's close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Most Anticipated Earnings Releases for this week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Here are the upcoming IPO's for this week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Friday's Stock Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART LINK #1!)

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART LINK #2!)

A Resilient Labor Market = A Resilient Economy

Another month, another employment surprise. Should we be surprised anymore?
Economists expected payrolls to grow by about 187,000 in May. That’s still a solid job growth number, but a stepdown from what we’ve seen this year through April. However, actual payroll growth beat expectations for the 14th straight month.
The economy created 339,000 jobs in May, close to double expectations. Better still, payroll growth in March and April were revised higher by a total of 93,000!

• March payrolls were revised up by 52,000, from 165,000 to 217,000
• April payroll were revised up by 41,000, from 253,000 to 294,000

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

We’ve got two months of payroll data since the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in March, and nothing suggests weakness arising from that banking crisis.
Over the first five months of the year, the economy’s added 1.5 million jobs. That in a nutshell tells you how the economy is doing. For perspective, the average annual payroll growth between 1940 and 2022 was 1.5 million. During the last expansion, 2010-2019, average annual payroll growth was 2.2 million per year.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

But what about the unemployment rate?
The unemployment rate did rise from a 50-year low of 3.4% to 3.7%. This does raise some cause for concern but digging through the data suggests it may be noise more than anything else.
It probably helps to understand that the job growth and unemployment rate data come from different sources. The former comes from asking about 120,000+ businesses how many people they hired. The latter comes from asking about 60,000 households about their employment status. No surprise, the latter is noisier.
A big reason for the weak household survey (and rising unemployment rate) is that more than 400,000 people who were self-employed said they were no longer employed. As you can see in the following chart this is very noisy data, but the recent trend seems to be toward lower self-employment. It’s basically reversing the surge we saw in 2021, when self-employment surged. So, what we’re seeing now may simply be normalization of the labor market as more workers move from self-employment to W2 jobs with an employer.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Also, the unemployment rate can be impacted by people leaving the labor force (technically defined as those “not looking for work”) and an aging population. I’ve discussed in prior blogs how we can get around this by looking at the employment-population ratio for prime age workers, i.e. workers aged 25-54 years. This measures the number of people working as a percent of the civilian population. Think of it as the opposite of the unemployment rate, and because we use prime age, you also get around the demographic issue.
The good news is that the prime-age employment-population ratio dropped only a tick, from 80.8% to 80.7%. This still leaves it higher than at any point between 2002 and 2022.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

All in all, the labor market remains strong and resilient, despite all the recession calls. Perhaps its not as strong as the headline payroll growth number of 339,000 suggests, but any number above 150,000 would be good at this point. And we’re certainly well above that.
In fact, looking at the job growth and employment-population data, this labor market is probably the strongest we’ve seen since the late 1990’s. Our view since the end of last year has been that the economy can avoid a recession this year, and nothing we’ve seen to date suggests we need to reverse that view. Far from it.

June Better in Pre-Election Years

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Since 1971 June has shone brighter on NASDAQ stocks as a rule ranking eighth best with an 0.8% average gain, up 29 of 52 years. This contributes to NASDAQ’s “Best 8 Months” which ends in June. Small caps also fare well in June. Russell 2000 has averaged 0.6% in June since 1979 advancing 63.6% of the time.
June ranks near the bottom on the Dow Jones Industrials just above September since 1950 with an average loss of 0.2%. S&P 500 performs similarly poorly, ranking ninth, but essentially flat (0.02% average gain).
Despite being much stronger S&P 500 pre-election year June ranks fifth best. For the rest it is just sixth best. Average monthly gains in pre-election year June range from DJIA 1.1% to a respectable 2.4% for NASDAQ. Russell 2000 has been the most consistently bullish in pre-election years, up 8 of the last 11 (72.7% of the time).

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

The June Swoon?

Stocks did it again, as the S&P 500 gained 0.2% in the month of May, making it now 10 of the past 11 years that stocks finished green in May. Of course, it gained only 0.01% last year and only 0.25% this year, so the recent returns weren’t off the charts by any measure.
Looking specifically at this year, tech added more than 9% in May, thanks to excitement over AI and Nvidia, with communication services and consumer discretionary also in the green, while the other eight sectors were lower.
Specifically, turning to the month of June, stocks historically have hit a bit of trouble here. Since 1950, up 0.03% on average, the fourth worst month of the year. Over the past 20 years, only January and September have been worse and in the past decade, it is again the fourth worst month. The one bit of good news is during a pre-election year is it up 1.5%, the fifth-best month of the year.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Here’s another chart we’ve shared before, but years that gained big in January (like 2023) tend to see some periods of consolidation in late May/early June, but eventually experience a surge higher into July. Given the flattish overall May, this could be playing out again.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

What if stocks were having a good year heading into June? Since 1950, if the S&P 500 was up more than 8% for the year going into June (like this year), the month of June was up an impressive 1.2% on average versus the average June return of 0.03%, while in a pre-election year the returns jumped to 1.8%. The percent of the time where returns were higher gets better as well, from 54.8% in your average June to nearly 74% if up 8% or more for the year heading into June, to 80% of the time higher if up 8% for the year in a pre-election year.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Overall, it has been a very nice run for stocks this year and we remain overweight stocks in the Carson Investment Research House Views. June could potentially cause some volatility, but when all is said and done, we wouldn’t bet against more strength and higher prices in June.

NASDAQ and Russell 2000 Lead June Pre-Election Strength

Over the last 21 years, June has been a rather lackluster month. DJIA, S&P 500 and Russell 1000 have all recorded average losses in the month. Russell 2000 has fared better with a modest average gain. Historically the month has opened respectably, advancing on the first and second trading days.
From there the market then drifted sideways and lower into negative territory just ahead of mid-month. Here the market rallied to create a nice mid-month bulge that quickly evaporated and returned to losses. The brisk, post, mid-month drop is typically followed by a month end rally led by technology and small caps.
Historical performance in pre-election years has been much stronger with all five indexes finishing with average gains. June’s overall pattern in pre-election is similar to the last 21-years pattern with a brief, shallow pullback after a solid start.
In pre-election years the mid-month rally has been much more robust beginning around the sixth trading day and lasting until the fifteenth. Followed by another modest retreat and rally into the end of Q2.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

May and YTD 2023 Asset Class Performance

May 2023 is now behind us, and below is a look at how various asset classes performed during the month using US-listed exchange-traded products as proxies. We also include YTD and YoY total returns.
May was a month of divergence where Tech/AI soared, and the rest of the market fell. Notably, the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) gained 7.88% in May while the Dow Jones Dividend ETF (DVY) fell 7.7%. That's a 15 percentage-point spread!
At the sector level, it was a similar story. While the Tech sector (XLK) rose 8.9%, sectors like Energy (XLE), Consumer Staples (XLP), Materials (XLB), and Utilities (XLU) fell more than 5%. In total, 8 of 11 sectors were in the red for the month.
Outside the US, we saw pullbacks in most areas of the world other than Brazil, India, and Japan. China, Hong Kong, France, Canada, Italy, Spain, and the UK all fell more than 5%.
All of the commodity-related ETFs/ETNs were in the red for May, with oil (USO) and natural gas (UNG) falling the most at more than 10% each.
Finally, fixed-income ETFs also fell in May as interest rates bounced back. The aggregate bond market ETF (AGG) was down 1.14% in May, leaving it up just 2.6% YTD and down 2.2% year-over-year.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

How Worried Should We Be About Consumer Debt?

A very common question we get these days is whether we’re concerned about the massive increase in consumer debt.
Short answer: No. Well, not yet anyway. But let’s walk through it in 6 charts.
The New York Federal Reserve (NY Fed) releases a quarterly report on household debt and credit, and the latest one that was released last week came with the headline:
“Household Debt Hits $17.05 Trillion in First Quarter.” But let’s look at the details. Household debt increased by $148 billion in Q1. That translates to a 0.9% increase, which is the slowest quarterly increase in two years. Most of the increase in debt was from mortgage originations ($121 billion) – mortgage debt makes up $12 trillion of the total $17 trillion in debt. The rest was auto loan and student loan balances.
Here’s something interesting: credit card balances were flat in Q1, at $986 billion. The fact that overall balances are higher than where they were in 2019 ($927 billion) should not be surprising given we just experienced a lot of inflation. Prices rose at the fastest pace in 40 years, and so you should expect card balances to increase. However, incomes rose as well.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

When you think debt, the key question is whether households are able to service that debt. A good measure of that is to look at debt service costs as a percent of disposable income. As of Q4 2022, that’s at 9.7%, slightly lower than what it was before the pandemic and well below the historical average.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

There’s even better news: disposable income grew 2.9% in the first quarter of 2023. Significantly higher than the 0.9% increase in total household debt, let alone interest costs!
Part of that includes the large boost to social security income due to inflation adjustments in January. Also, tax brackets were adjusted higher, resulting in more money in household wallets.
But even if you exclude these one-off increases, disposable income growth has been strong between February and April, rising at a 5% annualized pace. In fact, employee compensation by itself has risen at a 3.9% annualized pace over the past three months. Meanwhile, inflation is running just about 3% – which means households are seeing real income gains (adjusted for inflation).

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

This is why consumers don’t feel the need to borrow to the extent they did before the pandemic. Credit utilization rates measure credit card balances as a percent of available credit. As you can see in the following chart, utilization rates for both credit cards and home equity lines of credit are well below pre-pandemic averages.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Lack of stress showing in delinquency data as well
Another way to look for signs of consumer stress is to look at the debt delinquency data. As of the first quarter, the NY Fed survey showed that the percent of loan balances that were more than 90 days delinquent was stable around 1.5%. That’s down from 1.9% a year ago, and quite a bit below the 3% average in 2019.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Even third-party collections are at record lows, with just over 5% of consumers having collections against them as of the first quarter. This is down from 6% a year ago and below the 2019 average of 9.2%. The average collection amount per person is $1,316, which is lower than the $1,452 average in late 2019. This is surprising because just with inflation you’d have thought the amount would be higher.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

All in all, the data on consumer finances is not showing much cause for concern. So, count us in the “not worried” camp. At least, not yet.

Some Good Inflation News

While the market prices in a much higher likelihood of a rate hike at the June meeting, there was actually some decent news on the inflation front today. Starting with the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence report, in this month's update, the inflation expectations component fell to 6.1% from a peak of 7.9% fifteen months ago in March 2022 (first time reading touched 7.9%). Looking at the chart below, this reading was also at 6.1% fifteen months before that first peak. In other words, for all the talk about how inflation has been stickier, the pace of decline in this indicator on the way down has been the same as the pace of increase on the way up.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Another notable report was today's release of the Dallas Fed Manufacturing report. The Prices Paid component of that report showed a decline from 19.5 down to 13.8 which was the lowest reading since July 2020. For the month of May, two of the five components (Empire and Philadelphia) showed modest m/m increases from multi-month lows, and three showed significant declines to multi-month lows. The chart below shows a composite of the Prices Paid component using the z-scores for each of the five individual components going back to 2010. The peak for this component was 19 months ago in November 2021. Unlike the inflation expectations of the Conference Board survey, this reading hasn't declined quite as fast as it increased in the 19 months leading up to the peak, but at -0.2, it is still below its historical average dating back to 2010 and back down to levels it was at right before the COVID shock hit the economy in early 2020.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Home Prices Bounce in Hardest Hit Areas

March data on home prices across the country were released today with updated S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller numbers. Case Shiller home prices had been falling rapidly in many of the twenty cities tracked, but in March we actually saw a pretty big month-over-month bounce in some of the hardest-hit areas like San Diego, San Francisco, LA, Denver, and Phoenix. Some cities still saw declines, however. Las Vegas saw a m/m drop of 0.93%, while Miami fell 0.41%, and Seattle fell 0.28%.
On a year-over-year basis, Miami is still up the most with a gain of 10.86%. As shown in the table below, Miami home prices are up 59.87% from pre-COVID levels in February 2020, and they're only down 2.9% from post-COVID highs. Only Tampa is up more than Miami from pre-COVID levels (+61.04%), but Tampa prices are down more from their post-COVID highs (-4.70%) than Miami (-2.90%).
Four cities are down more than 10% from their post-COVID highs: San Diego (-10.12%), Las Vegas (-10.95%), San Francisco (-16.35%), and Seattle (-16.50%). New York is down the least from post-COVID highs of any city tracked at just -2.9%.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Below we include charts of home price levels across all 20 cities tracked by Case Shiller along with the three composite indices. We've included a vertical red line on each chart to highlight pre-COVID levels. When looking through the charts, you can see this month's small bounce back in most cities after a 6-9 month pullback in prices from peaks seen early last year.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Here is the list of notable tickers reporting earnings in this upcoming trading week ahead-

(*T.B.A. THIS WEEKEND.)

(CLICK HERE FOR NEXT WEEK'S MOST NOTABLE EARNINGS RELEASES!)

(CLICK HERE FOR NEXT WEEK'S HIGHEST VOLATILITY EARNINGS RELEASES!)

([CLICK HERE FOR MONDAY'S PRE-MARKET NOTABLE EARNINGS RELEASES!]())

(N/A.)

Here is the full list of companies report earnings for this upcoming trading week ahead which includes the date/time of release & consensus estimates courtesy of Earnings Whispers:

Monday 6.5.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR MONDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Monday 6.5.23 After Market Close:

(CLICK HERE FOR MONDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Tuesday 6.6.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR TUESDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Tuesday 6.6.23 After Market Close:

(CLICK HERE FOR TUESDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Wednesday 6.7.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR WEDNESDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Wednesday 6.7.23 After Market Close:

(CLICK HERE FOR WEDNESDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Thursday 6.8.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR THURSDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Thursday 6.8.23 After Market Close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THURSDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Friday 6.9.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR FRIDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES LINK!)

Friday 6.9.23 After Market Close:

([CLICK HERE FOR FRIDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!]())

(NONE.)

(T.B.A. THIS WEEKEND.)

(T.B.A. THIS WEEKEND.) (T.B.A. THIS WEEKEND.).

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

DISCUSS!

What are you all watching for in this upcoming trading week?
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a great new trading week ahead stocks. :)

Well out of my comfort zone, this one
This is the first video I've ever done with a voice-over and i managed to mess up the in game audio at the same time, so please bear with (use the closed captions if you don't catch what I say) and let me know what you think and what else you think I should coverevisit
enjoy ✌️ https://youtu.be/fbVS3LGnuAc

Duels have been a pretty successful newly introduced game mode, but could use some new ideas and such. And one idea could be new heroes, but to keep them in check and such, I thought they should do a rotation, like how they do mechs for battlegrounds. They bring in some new heroes we play with for a short time, and then rotate them out for another. They could do themes, like specific character groups, areas, and even do something crazy like guest characters from other games! We've already had Diablo playable for a short time, so who's say to we can't say characters from other Blizard products?
Here's some ideas I had for heroes, and any powers and unique treasures they could have. Feel free to share feedback, suggestions, and your own ideas for heroes. They could be specific classes, neutral (like drekthar and Vandarr until you pick a specific treasure that determines their class), or dual-class (like Diablo was warriowarlock).
1: Fandral Staghelm. Druid/Shaman. He was a druid until he became a servant of Ragnaros and was given flame-based abilities. So it would fit for him to be a both a druid and a shaman.
Hero Powers:Scorpion Form: 3-mana. Give your hero one attack and poisonous this turn.
Flame Vines: 2-mana. Choose one. Do 2 damage to a minion or give a minion the effect, "Can not attack until the beginning of your next turn" (Basically choosing if you want to make the minion take damage or be unable to attack)
Flame-Corruption. All nature spells are now classified as fire. All flame spells heal your hero by one. (Basically, it makes all your nature spells heal you, as well as any fire shaman spells, but it also means any card that works with nature loses that sync)
Treasures:
Flame Scythe. 3-mana weapon. 4/3. When you attack, choose one effect. Attack targets adjacent to your target or do five damage to enemy hero.
Burning Seeds. At the start of the game, shuffle 5 burning Treants into your deck.
(Burning Treant: 2/2. Summoned when drawn. Deathrattle: Choose one. Destroy an enemy minion and damage your opponent by its remaining health or shuffle another Burning Treant into your deck.)
2: Tyrael (From Diablo series). Priest/Paladin. Since we had diablo as a playable hero, why not give us an angel to play with? Since Tyrael uses both light powers and is a warrior, I decided priest and paladin was the best dual class for him.
Treasures:
Al'druin. 4-mana weapon. 3/4. Deathrattle. Summon a 0/4 Al'druin for your opponent.
(Al'druin. 0/4. This minion can not attack. Deathrattle: Your opponent gets Al'druin back into his hand)
(The idea here was that Tyrael's sword, Al'druin, has a mystic field that blocks off enemies. I thought forcing the enemy to lose a slot they could use for other minions could be bad, and plus once it gets destroyed, you get it back in your hand!)
3: Tracer (from Overwatch). Rogue/Mage. If Diablo heroes can be played here, why not Overwatch? And considering Tracer's time-skipping tech and generally agile-based fighting style, she's definitely a mage/rogue.
Hero powers:
Blink. 3-mana. Give your hero stealth this turn. Can not be used next turn.
Treasures:
Pulse Bomb. Beginning of the game. Shuffle a "Pulse Bomb Detonation" into your opponent's deck.
(Pulse Bomb Detonation. When drawn, draw another card. This remains in your hand until you draw a minion. This minion is immediately removed from your hand)

Hi all recently I've been approached by a company in my province for a service electrician job and I am joining the local 625 through a name hire. I've never joined the IBEW but I am in a different union currently. I've been doing electrical for 10+ years with a lot of experience with service type work and different commercial jobs. I try to stay humble and learn anything I can wherever I work. Just wondering how do the long term union people feel about this type of thing. The local hall guys seem all good with it but I don't personally know anyone in the union in my area. I'm not out to step on toes just put my time in and do my work and head home at the end of the day. The opportunity for me and my family is really too good to pass up just looking to hear some insight on this type of thing.

Call your server functions directly from any client. Jitar, a distributed runtime, takes care of the rest.
In contrast to any framework-like solution, there is no trace of Jitar in the application code. Jitar breaks up your application as configured on the go, so you can build your application as a monolith and deploy it as microservices.
This is our biggest release yet! Besides splitting the project into separate reusable packages, we've:

• completely rewritten the documentation to guide developers building great scalable apps
• added a CLI creator tool to get you up and running fast with or without frontend framework (react, vue, solid, svelte and more)
• optimized the startup time to run even smoother in the cloud

It's completely free and open source, so you can give it a spin any time!
Feedback is very much appreciated, as is leaving us a star!

I'm not sure where else to put this because I would like the advice but I feel like this is most likely the most appropriate place to put this. But feel free to correct it, if I am wrong.
I (18NB) am approaching the end of the school year of my senior year. In my freshman and sophomore years, which is when covid was at its worse, my credits came up short and I need to do summer school. In my freshman year, I went to a different school than I do now. My freshman year is when shit really hit the fan and we were all sent home. I did as much work as I could in that time frame of that year. And over the summer, I switched to my current school. And we started at home and it was a struggle to turn things in and get everything in without my teachers pitching a fit. And my internet and computer were shitty, so when I turned things in, my teachers claimed to never get them. So when I would show them that I turned all these things in, they would all say the same thing. "We don't have records of it on our computers so we can't do anything." And it pissed me off so I hounded them all year. Last year, my junior year when everyone started back at school in person, I was called to the counselor's office and she told me I was 5 credits short of graduating. And I was shocked that she told me this because I thought I was keeping up with my work. And surprise, surprise. All the credits were from freshman and sophomore years. They said they never got my transcript from my freshman year at the old school. Now my high school is notorious in my area for the staff not doing their jobs and being complete pieces of shit. So she said, unless I can get in contact with my old school about my transcript, I would have to do summer school and possibly not graduate. So I went and contacted my old school and they said that the transcripts were in the current school's possession, so they couldn't do anything about it. I went back to my current school and explained it to the counselor but she said they couldn't do anything about it. I went back and forth for months, hounding them until the end of the year, and made appointments with my counselor, even though she never showed up to any of them. I thought they'd have this settled by my senior year since they had all the time in the world at that point, but they never did. I was called up once again to be told that I had to go to an alternative school and that I'd have to complete school there. I kept asking last year if there was anything I could do to recover the credits while I worked on getting my transcript. She never answered any of my emails or calls back. I was forced to go to an alternative school and miss out on most of my senior year things. Such as grad bash, senior prank day, senior sunrise/sunset, and I almost missed prom. Thankfully a good friend of mine was able to take me. But throughout all this, my whole family hasn't helped me with it. Saying it was my fault for all this stuff happening and that I was just being a lazy sack of shit. My mom would repeatedly tell me that my stress wasn't as bad as her stress. For a little context about the next part: The house we were renting was bought under our noses and we had to stay with my grandparents this year. My grandpa made the sacrifice to put off his retirement to let me finish my senior year with all my friends. My mom has been looking for a place for us to live since Florida is too expensive now, and frankly, very dangerous at this point. But she tends to undermine my stress and mental health, saying that hers is much worse than mine. There was a time she slapped me for telling her I was stressed about my situation. Along with her, my grandparents, my uncle, and my dad (Who I do not have a good relationship with) think that all of it is my fault. And it has taken a huge toll on my mental health. My school's graduation is today and they're live streaming it, so that also put another hit on my emotions too. My grandpa is very blunt so he made a bunch of comments about me, my intelligence, how it was my fault I'm not graduating, the whole nine yards. All I want is some advice on how to deal with all this as I feel like I have developed mild-severe depression, anxiety, and possibly some kind of PTSD as I am always nervous being around them and talking to them about my mental being and the graduation topic. So please, if you could take some time to give me advice on how to deal with this kind of mental health. Again correct me if I am in the wrong subreddit as I am new to reddit.

If you live in a Mespirt area and are willing to do a Mespirt raid please put your friend code in the comment section and I will add you (Just let me know if you want to add me as I need to make room on my friends list)

Question for people who also sell/buy on DCS. When is the ideal time to post? When are you looking to buy on a regular basis? Also have you noticed the formatting failing recently? I used to be able to copy and paste my previous posts and just remove the ones I've sold. Now it bunches everything up and the bulletpoints no longer function. I had to bring an older version into a word proccessor. Just werid and frustrating.
Trying to clear out my codes! If someone wants to buy every single code for a deep discount HMU I’ll sell orders of $100 or more for 40% OFF, $200 for 50% OFF, $300 for 60% OFF, $400 for 70% OFF and $500 for 75% OFF!!
Just went through and dropped some prices! Not interested in discussing discounts on single codes.
Codes Never Split
Paypal f+f
New Pickups
• 3:10 To Yuma - $6 4K Vudu (1 Left)
• 65 - $7 HD MA (1 Left)
• 80 For Brady - $7 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Alien 6-Film Collection - $12 HD MA (2 Left)
• American Frontier Trilogy (Wind River, Hell or High Water, Sicario) - $9 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Amsterdam - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Ant-Man: Quantumania - $8 4K MA (1 Left)
• Ant-Man: Quantumania - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• Babylon - $7 4K iTunes (2 Left)
• Banshees of Inisherin - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Batman - $6 4K MA (2 Left)
• Beast - $6 HD MA (2 Left)
• Belly - $7 4K iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• Beverly Hills Cop II - $8 4K Vudu (1 Left)
• Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (A24) - $7 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Bullet Train - $7 4K MA (1 Left)
• Call Jane - $5 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Clerk III - $6 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Cocaine Bear - $8 HD MA (1 Left)
• Creed III - $12 4K Vudu (2 Left)
• Creed Trilogy - $18 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Devotion (2022) - $8 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Don't Worry Darling - $5 HD MA (2 Left)
• Dreamgirls - $5 HD Vudu, iTunes (1 Left)
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Theives - $10 4K iTunes/Vudu (2 Left)
• Empire of Light - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• Escape From LA - $8 4K Vudu, iTunes (1 Left)
• E.T. - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Everything Everywhere All At Once - $6 HD Vudu (2 Left)
• The Expendables 1-3 - $5 HD Vudu/iTunes (1 Left)
• The Fablemans - $5 HD MA (2 Left)
• Fantastic Beasts 1-3 - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• Flashdance - $6 4K Vudu, iTunes (2 Left)
• For the Love of Money (2021) - $5 HD Vudu/GP (1 Left)
• Frozen (Disney) - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Frozen II (Disney) - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Green Mile - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Heat 4K - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Highlander - $7 4K iTunes/Vudu (2 Left)
• Hot Seat (2022) - $6 HD Vudu/iTunes (1 Left)
• Interstellar - $6 4K itunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• Jaws - $5 4K MA (2 Left)
• Jurassic World: Ultimate Collection (6 Movies) - $18 HD MA (1 Left)
• Knock at the Cabin - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• Licorice Pizza - $5 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Lightyear - $5 4K MA (2 Left)
• Lilo & Stich 2-Film Collection - $7 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Lost City - $6 4K MA (2 Left)
• Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Mack & Rita - $7 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Magic Mike 3 - $7 HD MA (1 Left)
• Marlowe - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• M3gan - $7 HD MA (1 Left)
• Men (A24) (2022) - $6 HD Vudu (2 Left)
• Menu - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• Midsommar - $5 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Missing (2023) - $9 HD MA (1 Left)
• Moonfall - $6 4K iTunes/Vudu (2 Left)
• Nightmare Alley - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Nope - $6 4K MA (2 Left)
• The Northman - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Old Way (2023 Nick Cage) - $6 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Pearl (A24) - $5 HD Vudu (2 Left)
• Plane - $8 4K Vudu, iTunes (1 Left)
• Pulp Fiction - $7 4K iTunes/Vudu (2 Left)
• A Quiet Place 1 & 2 - $8 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Rambo 5-Film Collection - $12 HD iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• Rambo: First Blood - $12 HD iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• Rambo: Last Blood - $12 HD iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• The Requin - $6 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• The Rescuers 1 & 2 - $8 HD MA (1 Left)
• Reservoir Dogs - $6 4K iTunes/Vudu (2 Left)
• Rocketman - $6 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Rocky: The Knockout Collection 1-4 - $18 4K Vudu (2 Left)
• Seriously Red - $6 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Shazam: Fury of the Gods - $9 4K MA
• She Said - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• Smile - $7 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Sonic 2 - $5 4K iTunes/vudu (1 Left)
• Strange World - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Spinning Gold - $7 HD MA (1 Left)
• Supercell - $7 HD VUDU (1 Left)
• SuperPets - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Taken 1-3 - $8 HD MA (1 Left)
• Tar - $9 4K MA (1 Left)
• Thor Love and Thunder - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Till - $6 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Top Gun Maverick - $7 iTunes/Vudu (2 Left)
• Training Day - $7 MA (2 Left)
• Turning Red - $7 4K MA (1 Left)
• The Untouchables - $6 4K iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• Walking Dead Final Season (Eleventh) - $8 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Warm Bodies - $5 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• West Side Story (2021) - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Where the Crawdads Sing - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Wolf of Wall Street - $6 4K Vudu/iTunes (3 Left)
• The Woman King - $7 4K MA (1 Left)
• Young Sherlock Holmes - $5 HD iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
Collections/TV
• Columbia Classics Vol. 3 - $36 4K MA (1 Left) $6 per title (Not for sale individually)

1. It Happened One Night
   
2. From Here to Eternity
   
3. To Sir, With Love
   
4. The Last Picture Show (Director's Cut)
   
5. Annie
   
6. As Good As it Gets
   

• Fifty Shades Trilogy - $6 HD (1 Left) (1st and 2nd are Unrated and 2nd should redeem in iTunes and port in 4K)
• Game of Throne Season 4 - HD iTunes/vudu $3
• GOT: House of Dragon S1 - $18 4K Vudu (2 Left)
• Ghosts: Season One - $7 HD Vudu
• Jordan Peele 3-Movie Collection (Nope, Us, Get Out) - $12 HD MA (1 Left)
• Now You See Me 1&2 - $8 HD Vudu (1 Left)
Disney/Marvel/Star Wars (Unsplit, No DMR)
• Avengers: Endgame - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Avengers: Endgame - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Beauty and the Beast (Live Action) - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• The BFG - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Black Panther - $5 HD MA (2 Left)
• Call of the Wild - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Captain Marvel - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Cruella - $8 4K MA (1 Left)
• Disney Nature: Bears - $5 HD MA
• Finding Dory - $5 HD MA (2 Left)
• The Finest Hours - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Frozen - $5 HD MA (2 Left)
• Inside Out - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Iron Man 3 - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Jungle Book (Live Action) - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Maleficent - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Moana - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Oz The Great And Powerful - $5 HD MA (2 Left)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Saving Mr. Banks - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Sleeping Beauty - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Star Wars: Force Awakens - $5 HD MA (2 Left)
• Star Wars: Rogue One - $4 HD MA (3 Left)
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Thor: Dark World - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Wreck it Ralph 2 - $5 HD MA (2 Left)
• Zootopia - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
4K Movies
• Almost Famous - $7 4K iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• Arrival - $6 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Bad Boys for Life - $5 4K MA (1 Left)
• Bourne Legacy - $5 4K MA (1 Left)
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - $5 4K MA (1 Left)
• Deadpool - $5 4K MA (2 Left)
• Despicable Me 2 - $4 4K iTunes (3 Left)
• Dirty Dancing - $6 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Escape Plan 2 - $4 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Fast & Furious 6 (Extended) - $4 4K MA (1 Left)
• Fast & Furious 7 (Extended) - $4 4K MA (1 Left)
• Fate of the Furious + Extended - $3 4K MA (Extended Director's Cut is HD) (FREE WITH ANY PURCHASE OVER $5)
• Fifty Shades of Grey - $5 4K MA (1 Left)
• Force of Nature (2020) - $4 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Hidden Figures - $5 4K MA (iTunes Redeem) (1 Left)
• How to Train Your Dragon 2 - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• The Hunger Games - $4 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - $4 4K iTunes (2 Left)
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 - $4 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Jack Reacher - $5 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Jason Bourne - $5 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Justice League - $5 4K MA (1 Left)
• Kingsman: The Golden Circle - $5 4K MA (1 Left)
• Life of Pi - $5 4K MA (iTunes Redeem) (1 Left)
• The Martian - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Mile 22 (2018) - $5 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Mission: Impossible: Fallout - $5 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Pitch Perfect - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Red 2 - $5 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• The Revenant - $6 4K MA (1 Left)
• Secret Garden (2020) - $6 4K iTunes (1 Left)
• Secret Life of Pets - $5 4K MA (1 Left)
• Star Trek: Into Darkness - $4 4K iTunes (3 Left)
• Transformers: Age of Extinction - $5 4K iTunes (HD VUDU available) (2 Left)
• Transformers: The Last Knight - $5 4K iTunes (HD VUDU available) (1 Left)
• Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 - $4 4K iTunes (2 Left)
• xxx Xander Cage - $5 4K iTunes (1 Left)
HD Movies
• 12 Years A Slave - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• 2 Guns - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• 42 - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• About Time - $4 HD MA (2 Left)
• Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Amazing Spider-man - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• American Hustle - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Anchorman 2 - $4 HD iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• Book of Life - $4 HD MA (2 Left)
• Boyhood (Linklater) - $5 HD iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• Breaking In (Unrated) - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack - $3 HD MA (1 Left)
• A Christmas Story 2 - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Dolphin Tale - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Escape From Planet Earth - $4 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Extremely Loud Incredibly Close - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Ferdinand - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Flight - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Focus - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• A Good Day to Die Hard (Extended Edition) - $4 HD MA (2 Left)
• Grease 2 - $4 HD iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• The Greatest Showman - $4 HD MA (3 Left)
• The Hate U Give - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Home - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Host (2013) - $3 iTunes Redeem Port to MA (1 Left) Not Bong Joon-ho
• Hugo - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• If Beale Street Could Talk - $6 HD MA (1 Left)
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Kung Fu Panda - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Les Miserables - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Marvel's Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Midway - $4 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Noah - $4 HD Vudu/iTunes
• Now You See Me - $4 HD Vudu/iTunes (1 Left)
• Paddington - $5 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Parental Guidance - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Possession - $4 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Prometheus - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Reclaim - $4 HD Vudu (1 Left)
• Rise of the Guardians - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Robocop - $4 HD Vudu/GP (1 Left)
• Safe House - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Second Act - $3 iTunes (2 Left)
• The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - $3 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Secret Life of Pets - $3 HD MA (1 Left)
• The Shack - $4 HD iTunes/Vudu (1 Left)
• Silver Linings Playbook - $4 HD Vudu
• Sinister - $4 HD iTunes, Vudu, GP (1 Left)
• Skyfall - $4 HD Vudu/GP (2 Left)
• Sleepless - $3 HD MA (1 Left)
• Son of God - $3 HD MA (1 Left)
• TinTin (Speilberg) - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• Trolls - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Turbo - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Unbroken - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Underworld: Awakening - $3 HD MA (1 Left)
• Vivo - $5 HD MA (1 Left)
• When The Game Stands Tall - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• White House Down - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Zero Dark Thirty - $4 HD MA (1 Left)
• Zeros and Ones (2022) - $5 HD Vudu (1 Left)

Good Friday evening to all of you here on StockMarketChat! I hope everyone on this sub made out pretty nicely in the market this past week, and are ready for the new trading week ahead. :)
Here is everything you need to know to get you ready for the trading week beginning June 5th, 2023.

Dow leaps 700 points on hot jobs report, Nasdaq notches sixth straight winning week: Live updates - (Source)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged Friday as traders cheered a strong jobs report and the passage of a debt ceiling bill that averts a U.S. default.
The 30-stock Dow jumped 701.19 points, or 2.12%, to end at 33,762.76 — its best day since January. The S&P 500 climbed 1.45% to close at 4,282.37. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.07% to 13,240.77, reaching its highest level since April 2022 during the session.
With Friday’s gains, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished the holiday-shortened trading week about 1.8% and 2% higher, respectively. The Dow’s Friday advance pushed it into positive territory for the week, finishing up around 2%. The Nasdaq notched its sixth straight week higher, a streak length not seen for the technology-heavy index since 2020.
Nonfarm payrolls grew much more than expected in May, rising 339,000. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a relatively modest 190,000 increase. It marked the 29th straight month of positive job growth.
Recently strong employment data had been pressuring stocks on the notion it would keep the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. But Friday data also showed average hourly earnings rose less than economists expected year over year, while the unemployment rate was higher than anticipated.
Both data points have given investors hope that the Fed could pause its interest rate hike campaign at the policy meeting later this month, according to Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
“The so-called Goldilocks has entered the house,” Sandven said. “Clearly, on the bullish side, there are signs that inflation is starting to wane, speculation that the Fed is going to move into pause mode, increasing the likelihood of a soft landing.”
Easing concerns around the U.S. debt ceiling also helped sentiment. The Senate passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling late Thursday night, sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk. That comes after the House passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act on Wednesday, just days before the June 5 deadline set by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Lululemon shares popped more than 11% on strong results and a guidance boost, while MongoDB surged 28% on a blowout forecast.

This past week saw the following moves in the S&P:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL S&P TREE MAP FOR THE PAST WEEK!)

S&P Sectors for this past week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE S&P SECTORS FOR THE PAST WEEK!)

Major Indices for this past week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE MAJOR INDICES FOR THE PAST WEEK!)

Major Futures Markets as of Friday's close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE MAJOR FUTURES INDICES AS OF FRIDAY!)

Economic Calendar for the Week Ahead:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ECONOMIC CALENDAR FOR THE WEEK AHEAD!)

Percentage Changes for the Major Indices, WTD, MTD, QTD, YTD as of Friday's close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

S&P Sectors for the Past Week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Major Indices Pullback/Correction Levels as of Friday's close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Major Indices Rally Levels as of Friday's close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Most Anticipated Earnings Releases for this week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Here are the upcoming IPO's for this week:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Friday's Stock Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades:

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART LINK #1!)

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART LINK #2!)

A Resilient Labor Market = A Resilient Economy

Another month, another employment surprise. Should we be surprised anymore?
Economists expected payrolls to grow by about 187,000 in May. That’s still a solid job growth number, but a stepdown from what we’ve seen this year through April. However, actual payroll growth beat expectations for the 14th straight month.
The economy created 339,000 jobs in May, close to double expectations. Better still, payroll growth in March and April were revised higher by a total of 93,000!

• March payrolls were revised up by 52,000, from 165,000 to 217,000
• April payroll were revised up by 41,000, from 253,000 to 294,000

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

We’ve got two months of payroll data since the Silicon Valley Bank crisis in March, and nothing suggests weakness arising from that banking crisis.
Over the first five months of the year, the economy’s added 1.5 million jobs. That in a nutshell tells you how the economy is doing. For perspective, the average annual payroll growth between 1940 and 2022 was 1.5 million. During the last expansion, 2010-2019, average annual payroll growth was 2.2 million per year.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

But what about the unemployment rate?
The unemployment rate did rise from a 50-year low of 3.4% to 3.7%. This does raise some cause for concern but digging through the data suggests it may be noise more than anything else.
It probably helps to understand that the job growth and unemployment rate data come from different sources. The former comes from asking about 120,000+ businesses how many people they hired. The latter comes from asking about 60,000 households about their employment status. No surprise, the latter is noisier.
A big reason for the weak household survey (and rising unemployment rate) is that more than 400,000 people who were self-employed said they were no longer employed. As you can see in the following chart this is very noisy data, but the recent trend seems to be toward lower self-employment. It’s basically reversing the surge we saw in 2021, when self-employment surged. So, what we’re seeing now may simply be normalization of the labor market as more workers move from self-employment to W2 jobs with an employer.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Also, the unemployment rate can be impacted by people leaving the labor force (technically defined as those “not looking for work”) and an aging population. I’ve discussed in prior blogs how we can get around this by looking at the employment-population ratio for prime age workers, i.e. workers aged 25-54 years. This measures the number of people working as a percent of the civilian population. Think of it as the opposite of the unemployment rate, and because we use prime age, you also get around the demographic issue.
The good news is that the prime-age employment-population ratio dropped only a tick, from 80.8% to 80.7%. This still leaves it higher than at any point between 2002 and 2022.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

All in all, the labor market remains strong and resilient, despite all the recession calls. Perhaps its not as strong as the headline payroll growth number of 339,000 suggests, but any number above 150,000 would be good at this point. And we’re certainly well above that.
In fact, looking at the job growth and employment-population data, this labor market is probably the strongest we’ve seen since the late 1990’s. Our view since the end of last year has been that the economy can avoid a recession this year, and nothing we’ve seen to date suggests we need to reverse that view. Far from it.

June Better in Pre-Election Years

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Since 1971 June has shone brighter on NASDAQ stocks as a rule ranking eighth best with an 0.8% average gain, up 29 of 52 years. This contributes to NASDAQ’s “Best 8 Months” which ends in June. Small caps also fare well in June. Russell 2000 has averaged 0.6% in June since 1979 advancing 63.6% of the time.
June ranks near the bottom on the Dow Jones Industrials just above September since 1950 with an average loss of 0.2%. S&P 500 performs similarly poorly, ranking ninth, but essentially flat (0.02% average gain).
Despite being much stronger S&P 500 pre-election year June ranks fifth best. For the rest it is just sixth best. Average monthly gains in pre-election year June range from DJIA 1.1% to a respectable 2.4% for NASDAQ. Russell 2000 has been the most consistently bullish in pre-election years, up 8 of the last 11 (72.7% of the time).

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

The June Swoon?

Stocks did it again, as the S&P 500 gained 0.2% in the month of May, making it now 10 of the past 11 years that stocks finished green in May. Of course, it gained only 0.01% last year and only 0.25% this year, so the recent returns weren’t off the charts by any measure.
Looking specifically at this year, tech added more than 9% in May, thanks to excitement over AI and Nvidia, with communication services and consumer discretionary also in the green, while the other eight sectors were lower.
Specifically, turning to the month of June, stocks historically have hit a bit of trouble here. Since 1950, up 0.03% on average, the fourth worst month of the year. Over the past 20 years, only January and September have been worse and in the past decade, it is again the fourth worst month. The one bit of good news is during a pre-election year is it up 1.5%, the fifth-best month of the year.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Here’s another chart we’ve shared before, but years that gained big in January (like 2023) tend to see some periods of consolidation in late May/early June, but eventually experience a surge higher into July. Given the flattish overall May, this could be playing out again.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

What if stocks were having a good year heading into June? Since 1950, if the S&P 500 was up more than 8% for the year going into June (like this year), the month of June was up an impressive 1.2% on average versus the average June return of 0.03%, while in a pre-election year the returns jumped to 1.8%. The percent of the time where returns were higher gets better as well, from 54.8% in your average June to nearly 74% if up 8% or more for the year heading into June, to 80% of the time higher if up 8% for the year in a pre-election year.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Overall, it has been a very nice run for stocks this year and we remain overweight stocks in the Carson Investment Research House Views. June could potentially cause some volatility, but when all is said and done, we wouldn’t bet against more strength and higher prices in June.

NASDAQ and Russell 2000 Lead June Pre-Election Strength

Over the last 21 years, June has been a rather lackluster month. DJIA, S&P 500 and Russell 1000 have all recorded average losses in the month. Russell 2000 has fared better with a modest average gain. Historically the month has opened respectably, advancing on the first and second trading days.
From there the market then drifted sideways and lower into negative territory just ahead of mid-month. Here the market rallied to create a nice mid-month bulge that quickly evaporated and returned to losses. The brisk, post, mid-month drop is typically followed by a month end rally led by technology and small caps.
Historical performance in pre-election years has been much stronger with all five indexes finishing with average gains. June’s overall pattern in pre-election is similar to the last 21-years pattern with a brief, shallow pullback after a solid start.
In pre-election years the mid-month rally has been much more robust beginning around the sixth trading day and lasting until the fifteenth. Followed by another modest retreat and rally into the end of Q2.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

May and YTD 2023 Asset Class Performance

May 2023 is now behind us, and below is a look at how various asset classes performed during the month using US-listed exchange-traded products as proxies. We also include YTD and YoY total returns.
May was a month of divergence where Tech/AI soared, and the rest of the market fell. Notably, the Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) gained 7.88% in May while the Dow Jones Dividend ETF (DVY) fell 7.7%. That's a 15 percentage-point spread!
At the sector level, it was a similar story. While the Tech sector (XLK) rose 8.9%, sectors like Energy (XLE), Consumer Staples (XLP), Materials (XLB), and Utilities (XLU) fell more than 5%. In total, 8 of 11 sectors were in the red for the month.
Outside the US, we saw pullbacks in most areas of the world other than Brazil, India, and Japan. China, Hong Kong, France, Canada, Italy, Spain, and the UK all fell more than 5%.
All of the commodity-related ETFs/ETNs were in the red for May, with oil (USO) and natural gas (UNG) falling the most at more than 10% each.
Finally, fixed-income ETFs also fell in May as interest rates bounced back. The aggregate bond market ETF (AGG) was down 1.14% in May, leaving it up just 2.6% YTD and down 2.2% year-over-year.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

How Worried Should We Be About Consumer Debt?

A very common question we get these days is whether we’re concerned about the massive increase in consumer debt.
Short answer: No. Well, not yet anyway. But let’s walk through it in 6 charts.
The New York Federal Reserve (NY Fed) releases a quarterly report on household debt and credit, and the latest one that was released last week came with the headline:
“Household Debt Hits $17.05 Trillion in First Quarter.” But let’s look at the details. Household debt increased by $148 billion in Q1. That translates to a 0.9% increase, which is the slowest quarterly increase in two years. Most of the increase in debt was from mortgage originations ($121 billion) – mortgage debt makes up $12 trillion of the total $17 trillion in debt. The rest was auto loan and student loan balances.
Here’s something interesting: credit card balances were flat in Q1, at $986 billion. The fact that overall balances are higher than where they were in 2019 ($927 billion) should not be surprising given we just experienced a lot of inflation. Prices rose at the fastest pace in 40 years, and so you should expect card balances to increase. However, incomes rose as well.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

When you think debt, the key question is whether households are able to service that debt. A good measure of that is to look at debt service costs as a percent of disposable income. As of Q4 2022, that’s at 9.7%, slightly lower than what it was before the pandemic and well below the historical average.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

There’s even better news: disposable income grew 2.9% in the first quarter of 2023. Significantly higher than the 0.9% increase in total household debt, let alone interest costs!
Part of that includes the large boost to social security income due to inflation adjustments in January. Also, tax brackets were adjusted higher, resulting in more money in household wallets.
But even if you exclude these one-off increases, disposable income growth has been strong between February and April, rising at a 5% annualized pace. In fact, employee compensation by itself has risen at a 3.9% annualized pace over the past three months. Meanwhile, inflation is running just about 3% – which means households are seeing real income gains (adjusted for inflation).

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

This is why consumers don’t feel the need to borrow to the extent they did before the pandemic. Credit utilization rates measure credit card balances as a percent of available credit. As you can see in the following chart, utilization rates for both credit cards and home equity lines of credit are well below pre-pandemic averages.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE CHART!)

Lack of stress showing in delinquency data as well
Another way to look for signs of consumer stress is to look at the debt delinquency data. As of the first quarter, the NY Fed survey showed that the percent of loan balances that were more than 90 days delinquent was stable around 1.5%. That’s down from 1.9% a year ago, and quite a bit below the 3% average in 2019.

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Even third-party collections are at record lows, with just over 5% of consumers having collections against them as of the first quarter. This is down from 6% a year ago and below the 2019 average of 9.2%. The average collection amount per person is $1,316, which is lower than the $1,452 average in late 2019. This is surprising because just with inflation you’d have thought the amount would be higher.

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All in all, the data on consumer finances is not showing much cause for concern. So, count us in the “not worried” camp. At least, not yet.

Some Good Inflation News

While the market prices in a much higher likelihood of a rate hike at the June meeting, there was actually some decent news on the inflation front today. Starting with the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence report, in this month's update, the inflation expectations component fell to 6.1% from a peak of 7.9% fifteen months ago in March 2022 (first time reading touched 7.9%). Looking at the chart below, this reading was also at 6.1% fifteen months before that first peak. In other words, for all the talk about how inflation has been stickier, the pace of decline in this indicator on the way down has been the same as the pace of increase on the way up.

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Another notable report was today's release of the Dallas Fed Manufacturing report. The Prices Paid component of that report showed a decline from 19.5 down to 13.8 which was the lowest reading since July 2020. For the month of May, two of the five components (Empire and Philadelphia) showed modest m/m increases from multi-month lows, and three showed significant declines to multi-month lows. The chart below shows a composite of the Prices Paid component using the z-scores for each of the five individual components going back to 2010. The peak for this component was 19 months ago in November 2021. Unlike the inflation expectations of the Conference Board survey, this reading hasn't declined quite as fast as it increased in the 19 months leading up to the peak, but at -0.2, it is still below its historical average dating back to 2010 and back down to levels it was at right before the COVID shock hit the economy in early 2020.

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Home Prices Bounce in Hardest Hit Areas

March data on home prices across the country were released today with updated S&P CoreLogic Case Shiller numbers. Case Shiller home prices had been falling rapidly in many of the twenty cities tracked, but in March we actually saw a pretty big month-over-month bounce in some of the hardest-hit areas like San Diego, San Francisco, LA, Denver, and Phoenix. Some cities still saw declines, however. Las Vegas saw a m/m drop of 0.93%, while Miami fell 0.41%, and Seattle fell 0.28%.
On a year-over-year basis, Miami is still up the most with a gain of 10.86%. As shown in the table below, Miami home prices are up 59.87% from pre-COVID levels in February 2020, and they're only down 2.9% from post-COVID highs. Only Tampa is up more than Miami from pre-COVID levels (+61.04%), but Tampa prices are down more from their post-COVID highs (-4.70%) than Miami (-2.90%).
Four cities are down more than 10% from their post-COVID highs: San Diego (-10.12%), Las Vegas (-10.95%), San Francisco (-16.35%), and Seattle (-16.50%). New York is down the least from post-COVID highs of any city tracked at just -2.9%.

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Below we include charts of home price levels across all 20 cities tracked by Case Shiller along with the three composite indices. We've included a vertical red line on each chart to highlight pre-COVID levels. When looking through the charts, you can see this month's small bounce back in most cities after a 6-9 month pullback in prices from peaks seen early last year.

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STOCK MARKET VIDEO: Stock Market Analysis Video for Week Ending June 5th, 2023

(CLICK HERE FOR THE YOUTUBE VIDEO!)

(VIDEO NOT YET POSTED.)

STOCK MARKET VIDEO: ShadowTrader Video Weekly 6/2/23

([CLICK HERE FOR THE YOUTUBE VIDEO!]())

(VIDEO NOT YET POSTED.)
Here is the list of notable tickers reporting earnings in this upcoming trading week ahead-

($NIO $GTLB $GME $CIEN $DOCU $SAIC $ASO $SJM $CXM $THO $OLLI $MOMO $CBRL $FERG $TTC $HQY $CPB $PLAY $QMCO $FCEL $LOVE $ABM $CNM $HTOO $TCOM $JOAN $UNFI $SFIX $CHS $GIII $SIG $SMAR $PL $ZFOX $HYZN $VRA $CASY $MTN $SMTC $ALYA $DBI $SCWX $JILL $OESX $BSE $REVG $VBNK $VRNT $RENT $HCP)

(CLICK HERE FOR NEXT WEEK'S MOST NOTABLE EARNINGS RELEASES!)

(CLICK HERE FOR NEXT WEEK'S HIGHEST VOLATILITY EARNINGS RELEASES!)

([CLICK HERE FOR MONDAY'S PRE-MARKET NOTABLE EARNINGS RELEASES!]())

(N/A.)

Here is the full list of companies report earnings for this upcoming trading week ahead which includes the date/time of release & consensus estimates courtesy of Earnings Whispers:

Monday 6.5.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR MONDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Monday 6.5.23 After Market Close:

(CLICK HERE FOR MONDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Tuesday 6.6.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR TUESDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Tuesday 6.6.23 After Market Close:

(CLICK HERE FOR TUESDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Wednesday 6.7.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR WEDNESDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Wednesday 6.7.23 After Market Close:

(CLICK HERE FOR WEDNESDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Thursday 6.8.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR THURSDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Thursday 6.8.23 After Market Close:

(CLICK HERE FOR THURSDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!)

Friday 6.9.23 Before Market Open:

(CLICK HERE FOR FRIDAY'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES LINK!)

Friday 6.9.23 After Market Close:

([CLICK HERE FOR FRIDAY'S AFTER-MARKET EARNINGS TIME & ESTIMATES!]())

(NONE.)

(T.B.A. THIS WEEKEND.)

(T.B.A. THIS WEEKEND.) (T.B.A. THIS WEEKEND.).

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DISCUSS!

What are you all watching for in this upcoming trading week?

Join the Official Reddit Stock Market Chat Discord Server HERE!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a great new trading week ahead StockMarketChat. :)

In the vast expanse of the Mexican countryside, where the swaying fields of green met the endless stretch of blue sky, I had spent my seventy years as a humble rancher. My life had been defined by hard work, the warmth of the sun on my weathered face, and the unwavering faith that guided my every step. Family was the cornerstone of my existence, and the love that bound us together brought solace and joy to my heart.
It was my grandniece, Ana, who now resided in the bustling city of Los Angeles, who played an unexpected role in the strange journey that awaited me. Despite the miles that separated us, Ana had become a successful professional, and her heart overflowed with love and concern for her aging uncle. When she learned of my deteriorating health, she took it upon herself to arrange a special surgery in Arizona, hoping to restore my vitality and grant me a chance at a better life.
Full of gratitude and hope, I embarked on the journey, leaving behind the familiar sights and sounds of my homeland. Ana's support had brought me solace, as I clung to the belief that God's grace would guide me through any trial that lay ahead.
Little did I know that my journey to Arizona would lead me into the depths of a living nightmare, shattering the foundation of my faith and testing the very limits of my sanity. The surgery was meant to bring healing, but instead, it opened a door to a world of unspeakable horrors that would forever haunt my existence.
This is the harrowing tale of the creatures I encountered while under the influence of drugs, their relentless pursuit, and the grim realization that some nightmares extend far beyond the realms of our understanding. As I recount this chilling experience, let it serve as a warning that even the strongest faith and love cannot shield us from the darkness that lurks in the shadows, waiting to consume us whole.
As a seventy-year-old rancher from Mexico, I had experienced my fair share of hardships and unusual encounters. But nothing could have prepared me for the terrifying ordeal that unfolded after I was brought to Arizona for a special surgery. It was a routine procedure, they said, but little did I know that the anesthetics they administered would unlock a horrifying world beyond my imagination.
The moment the sedatives took hold, I found myself drifting into a nightmarish slumber. Shadows danced and twisted before my closed eyes, morphing into grotesque shapes that defied reason. When I awoke, disoriented and groggy, I found myself in a dimly lit hospital room. The air felt heavy, suffocating, and an eerie silence hung in the air.
I tried to call out for help, but my voice seemed to evaporate into thin air. Panic coursed through my veins as I struggled to make sense of my surroundings. Then, from the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of movement. Something skittered across the floor, quick and unnatural.
My heart pounded in my chest as I turned my gaze towards the source of the disturbance. My eyes widened in horror as I laid eyes upon the creatures that haunted my nightmares. They were humanoid in shape, but twisted and contorted beyond recognition. Their pale, mottled skin seemed to glisten under the dim light, and their elongated limbs moved with a jerky, unsettling motion.
Their eyes, oh god, their eyes were empty voids, devoid of any humanity or emotion. As I watched, they crept closer, their unsettling presence filling the room with an oppressive dread. I could feel their malevolence, an otherworldly aura that sent shivers down my spine.
Fear consumed me as I realized these creatures were not bound by the laws of our reality. They moved through walls and solid objects, effortlessly closing the distance between us. I tried to escape, to flee from the room and their relentless pursuit, but my body felt heavy and unresponsive.
With each passing moment, their numbers grew, their presence suffocating my very existence. Their clawed hands reached out towards me, their whispers echoing in my mind. Their incomprehensible language filled my head, driving me to the brink of madness. I could no longer distinguish reality from the hallucinations induced by the drugs.
Days turned into nights, and nights bled into an endless cycle of torment. Sleep became a mere illusion, a reprieve from the never-ending horror that plagued me. The creatures stalked me relentlessly, their eyes boring into my soul, taunting me with their existence.
I pleaded for mercy, begged for release from this hellish nightmare, but my cries fell upon deaf ears. No one could hear me, no one could save me from the nightmare that had become my reality. I was trapped in a twisted dimension, caught between life and death.
With the weight of my encounter with the haunting creatures pressing heavily on my soul, I sought solace in the company of my brothers. Juan and Miguel, both strong and unwavering in their support, listened intently as I recounted the terrifying ordeal that had befallen me. Their furrowed brows and concerned expressions revealed their genuine worry, but their practical minds sought a solution to this unearthly menace.
"We mustn't let these creatures continue to stalk you, hermano," Juan declared, his voice laced with determination. "We must find a way to confront them and rid you of this torment."
Miguel, the more skeptical of the two, took a moment to contemplate. "Perhaps we can lead them away, far from here. Out in the desert, where their presence won't harm anyone else."
Hope ignited within me as their plan unfolded. We would set up a campfire in the vast expanse of the desert, drawing the creatures away from populated areas. It seemed like a sound strategy, a way to buy some time and perhaps even find a solution.
As nightfall settled upon the arid landscape, my brothers and I ventured into the heart of the desert. With every step, I could feel the weight of their doubts pressing upon me. They were reluctant to fully embrace the extent of the horrors I had witnessed. Instead, they chose to drown their unease in the embrace of the bottle, their laughter echoing under the starlit sky.
But as the flickering flames cast eerie shadows upon the sand, I realized the creatures were drawing closer. The distant whispers and rustling sounds sent chills down my spine, urging me to abandon the camouflage we had created.
Summoning all the courage within me, I decided to lead the creatures further away, away from my beloved brothers and into the treacherous darkness of the desert. The pain of leaving them behind gnawed at my heart, but their inebriation had clouded their judgment, blinding them to the imminent danger.
As the first rays of dawn painted the horizon with hues of golden light, I turned to face the pursuing creatures. With each step, their presence grew more malevolent, their snarls echoing through the stillness of the desert. They lunged towards me, their claws outstretched, and I braced myself for the inevitable onslaught.
In that final confrontation, wounds appeared upon my flesh, marking me as a testament to the terrors I had endured. Though their touch sent searing pain through my body, I summoned the last vestiges of strength to fight back. Using all my willpower, I managed to block the creatures in an old, abandoned mine, the sunlight casting them into a prison of darkness.
Exhausted and battered, I limped my way back to civilization, hitching a ride with a kind-hearted Americano who sympathized with my plight. In the confines of the bus, I shared my story, hoping for understanding and validation. But as I revealed the wounds to the skeptical passengers, the sunlight exposed them for what they truly were—fresh scars, resembling those left by surgical incisions.
Their disbelief hung heavy in the air, skepticism etched on their faces. No one could fathom the horrors I had endured, the demons I had faced in that shadowed realm. Alone with my scars, I pondered the fickle nature of perception and the daunting task of convincing others of the unspeakable.
As the bus rumbled on, taking me closer to the sanctuary of my homeland, I knew that the creatures still lurked in the depths of that abandoned mine. They were trapped, but for how long? I held on to the hope that my encounter with them would remain a solitary nightmare, confined to the depths of the desert and buried within my memories.
But deep down, a gnawing fear lingered—an understanding that some terrors can never be truly vanquished, and their tendrils may stretch far beyond the boundaries of our comprehension.

Hey, I’m student summer intern in nyc downtown near Times Square, living in the columbia university area , anyone wanna hit up bars or clubs on the weekend and have fun ? Looking to find a good group to hangout or party with lol , hmu!!

Hi,
I am on consistently during the day.
Daily gift
Will join raids during the day on EU/UK time
Friend code - 3085 4521 4250

I’m trying to generate relatively flat start area with cosy big forest around. I managed to do so couple of times in the past, but I forgot to save the seeds. Maybe someone have something like I described in their stocks? Please share

Hey everyone, hoping y'all can help me navigate this!
To start, I'm 24 from the US with a bachelors in Bioengineering. I kind of stumbled into data science; long story short, my sophomore year of college I started working for a small social media firm that a friend of a friend recommended. I was literally just a warm body to answer emails but it paid well (especially for a college student) and the hours were flexible enough for me to continue my coursework and research. Fast forward a couple years and the company had grown from ~25 employees to over 200, and they began to invest more in technical projects (ie. legit database management, portals, email automation, etc.) and created a small tech department. I was still with them at this point and expressed interest in joining the tech department upon graduating. My BioE program was fairly code-heavy, so I had a good foundation (mostly MATLAB, C++, R, and Python) and a genuine interest in the work they were doing. I started as a software engineer right after graduating and was mostly doing QA, basic ETL, database management, etc. along with lots of observation of the senior engineers and trainings.
About 6 months in, the company went through a massive restructure, a ton of people were let go and many of the products we worked on were depreciated. I'm sure many of you have seen a similar scenario play out...older leadership doesn't understand the function and/or benefit of certain digital solutions and would rather make cuts than adapt. Anyways, in this transition myself and another engineer began to split our time between the tech department and research department. After a couple weeks of that I moved fully to the research department as a data scientist. The research department was just myself and the other engr plus our supervisor. We basically did all the reporting for the company, so lots of metrics, KPI tracking, A/B testing, data visualization, NLP, etc. Maybe it was just this company, but I felt like I was being pulled in so many directions (colleagues have said its the nature of start ups...ie. its always chaotic and you have to wear a lot of hats) and my day to day was a lot more scrambling to finish decks and then explaining what different metrics and visualizations meant to the marketing teams before they met with clients. We did a couple of projects that were more pure data science but it was limited in my opinion.
In any case, the company is going under and I'm being let go in couple weeks. Regardless of any workplace drama, I really enjoyed the projects I worked on and want to stay on this career path. All in all, I have about a year of experience as a "data scientist" but at most I feel like a data analyst. Do I even bother applying to data science roles? Can I fill in the gaps with personal projects? Do I need to go back to school? How can I leverage my experience into a positive? Oof that was a lot, thank you to anyone who takes the time to read through my imposter syndrome spiral. Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated!

I'm here, from fiance K1 and now in process of I485 (Minneapolis-St Paul zip code). Get married in Jun 2022, PD Jun 2022, Biometric Jul 2022, EAD approved quickly, just few days after that, I131 and I485 still no update.
I have an unpopular opinion: If less than 2yrs of marriage, I'll be getting conditional GC by the time of approval,, then required for removal of status I751, before I can apply for citizenship. I'm thinking it's better to just wish that I get my GC approve after 2 yrs of marriage then so that I get permanent GC right away. This will avoid additional wait time ROC and filing fee ~$600. What y'all guys think?

Why YSK: Among the health problems that can be caused by mercury contamination are vision loss, motor and speech difficulties, hearing impairment, neurological damage, and even cancer. In pregnant women, the fetus may experience neurological disorders, damage to the kidneys and cardiovascular system.
The consumption of fish is endangering the health of people living in six of the seven states in the Northern region of Brazil, according to a study released by Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation), Greenpeace Brazil, the Indigenous Research and Training Institute (Iepé), the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), and WWF Brazil.
https://brazilreports.com/fish-bought-in-markets-in-brazils-amazon-highly-contaminated-with-mercury-study/4909/
According to analyses conducted on fish samples, there are levels of mercury contamination far above what is considered safe for human consumption by the World Health Organization, which is 0.5 micrograms per gram of fish. In some cases, the levels were 31.5 times higher than the limit.
Mercury is widely used in illegal gold mining operations in the Amazon region during the process of separating gold from stones, mud, and other materials in rivers. For the researchers, finding such high levels of fish in cities far from the areas where the miners operate reveals that mercury contamination of fish is no longer solely an issue affecting indigenous communities.

Grahim was having the worst day of his life.
While this hyperbolic statement was likely entirely untrue, in the moment, the Canician was in the worst mood he'd been in for a long time, and had a very short temper as a result. His proposal at the Galactic Council had been rejected before he could properly get it off the floor- stupid Silarians and their flashy and impractical solutions to literally anything- and his lunch had been outright stolen from him by a Rakat who claimed he was the one trying to steal the food- and during the brief time that Grahim had brought up his receipts and proved that he was the one who bought it, the Rakat had absconded with the food, and the security force simply told him they would try to find the culprit, without offering any form of recompense.
The Hedron was widely known for its automatic sliding doors, none of which Grahim would slam shut to vent his anger. He was tired, hungry, and the last thing he wanted to do was lash out at anyone who didn't deserve it.
Like David.
Before he could beeline for his room, David was already approaching, arms wrapped around his abdomen and face buried in his fur.
"Not now." Grahim growled. It was instinctual, unintentional. It always hurt him when he growled at David, the Human was trying his best.
"Rough day, Grrhaf?" David asked. His pronunciation of the Caniti word was rough, but understandable. Though there wasn't a direct translation that worked- the best approximation was the sweet meats of herbivorous prey bathed in fresh blood from an equally fresh kill- Humans opted to translate it as 'sweetie' or 'honey', as it conveyed the same linguistic function as a term of endearment.
"If we were on Caniti Grrau, there would be several dead men today." Grahim growled. His stomach growled as if in agreement.
"Well, it'll please you to know that I've made dinner. We're having meatloaf with gravy, sausages, and those little cocktail weenies you like so much in your favorite sauce." David replied. Grahim's tail wagged at just the sound of the meal, let alone the scent that was beginning to waft his way.
There was no hesitation, dinner was served and eaten- Grahim noted David eating a salad along with his food, the plant matter not only digestible by his more omnivorous companion, but also enjoyed with the same sauce used with the cocktail weenies. Even when eating prey food, David liked to drench it in meat juices.
It was after dinner that the two went into their recreation room and sat down, David surprised Grahim by pulling him to a laying position. "Grrhaf, why have you done this?" Grahim asked.
"Shh, you've had a rough day. Lay your head on my lap." David replied firmly.
Grahim didn't argue, he rested his head on his companion's lap as they browsed the Hedron's television network for something they both could enjoy- or, that would be the normal course of action, yet David went directly toward Canician channels.
"David, you hate Canician broadcasts." Grahim remarked.
"And you don't." David replied. Then he did something with his fingers, Grahim at first didn't understand what it was, only that it was pleasant, almost intoxicating. David's fingers gently snaked through the fur around his ears, lightly scratching in an almost obscene way, and then David's other hand gently rubbed along Grahim's belly.
The Canician normally hated having anyone touch his belly, it was soft and vulnerable. Yet, David's blunt nails were no danger, his largely flat teeth- while capable of tearing flesh- were so blunt that they were no danger. Grahim felt... vulnerable, but he didn't feel in danger. He nuzzled David's hand almost involuntarily, and those blunt nails gently scraped against the sensitive area around his neck.
The growl that left his lips wasn't one of warning or threat, but of surprised contentment, and as the television began broadcasting Canician bloodsports, Grahim realized that maybe this was actually the best day ever in disguise.

TLDR: Me and him have been seeing eachother for approximately a month now after we both admitted we liked eachother. To me this relationship is nothing serious. At first I thought he was great but now I realize that he is incredibly immature, he is incredibly clingy, I'm not particularly attracted to him and he doesn't treat me with the respect I expect in a relationship. We work in the same office and have mutual friends in the workplace so I fear that if I break up with him 1. it will be awkward 2. people will talk shit and 3. he will severely dislike me. How can/should I get myself out of this situationship wothout causing a mess?
The parts in bold are the most important. I'm sorry this is quite long.
Me and him have been working at the same office for around 2 and a half years. He was at first completing an apprenticeship and wasn't in the same area of the office as me for the first year. I only saw him when he was talking to the one mutual friend we had at the time.
When he did finally get a job with the company and worked closer to my space in the office, we talked frequently and became very good friends. For the first year or so I had no intentions of starting a relationship with him. I didn't like him in that way and to add onto that he was still 17 while I had turned 18. We had a lot in common and enjoyed eachother's company.
Earlier this year I found out through a few co-workers that he had a crush on me. I was flattered however I didn't like him that way at this point and I thought we had developed a great friendship that I didn't want to damage. I continued to spend a decent amount of my time around him knowing this information but didn't let it affect how I saw us.
A couple months ago I began to get light feelings for him. He seemed smart, caring and appeared more mature than my high school boyfriend (who I had a great experience with). Therefore, after meeting up with him and a few other friends, I asked him if he still liked me - to which he said yes - and that I liked him back. Even then I wasn't entirely sure if I was particularly attracted to him or if our relationship was sustainable. He seemed elated with this news and then admitted he had liked me for more than a year (which I was a little shocked by). We avoided labeling the relationship and that is why I am hesitant to call him my boyfriend, especially since we only told eachother we liked one another a month or so ago. A lot of co-workers know, while some don't - because he blurted it out to anyone who would listen :
I fear I may have not evaluated this adequately before going into the relationship. I fear I rushed things. I fear that he's just not a good match for me.
Almost as soon as we got together, he began to get more comfortable around me and has started to show his true colors more. He's rude very often. He will call me a bitch now and then, even though I've communicated that I don't like that at all and that it's not ok. He will make belittling remarks towards women. He cirticizes my interests constantly. He honestly acts like a 12 year-old. I don't feel excited to spend time together and I've honestly lost any and all attracton to him.
I'm tied to this job, and while I don't enjoy the work particularly it pays decent and is a great opportunity for me. I love most of the friends I've made here.
So how do I get out of this relationship without causing a mess? I don't want him to be too upset or become mad, which I'm worried about because I don't think he has any idea how I feel. I know he's liked me for a long time and talks about me a lot with others. I don't want co-workers to chat shit about me. I don't want the work environment to be awkward, especially with mutual friends. I do not mind staying friends as long as he respects my boundaries. And I also want to end this as soon as possible; not leading him on either. What should I say to him and how should I handle the situation?