“The superior investor is mature, rational, analytical, objective and unemotional.” ― Howard Marks

1. Covid-19 Vaccine for Kids Ages 5-11 to Be Given at Pediatric Offices, Schools Once Authorized — the Biden administration is preparing to distribute shots to children at doctors’ offices, pharmacies and schools should federal regulators clear the inoculations for kids ages 5-11. The Biden administration said it has procured enough doses to vaccinate the nation’s children and will begin shipping supplies if and when the shots are cleared for use. Officials aim to have a plan in place as soon as young children are eligible in hopes of getting as many as possible vaccinated quickly. Rates of hospitalization among children are higher than earlier in the pandemic due to the highly transmissible Delta variant, and public-health authorities plan to offer shots in settings more familiar for children than the mass sites used for many adults. Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration this month seeking emergency authorization of their vaccine.
2. Russia Orders People Not to Go to Work as Covid-19 Deaths Mount — Mr. Putin signed a decree Wednesday approving a period of nonworking days, as the government calls them, beginning Oct. 30 and stretching to Nov. 7 to encourage people to stay home and slow the spread of the virus. Regional governments where infection rates are especially virulent can speed up or prolong the measures, with employers continuing to pay their staffs as they stay home.
Latvia, which until recently had outperformed other European countries in containing the virus, on Monday announced a slate of strict measures, including a nationwide 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and closures of schools and nonessential retail after the seven-day average of deaths in the tiny Baltic state more than doubled last week.
3. Trump-Linked SPAC Steadies Near $100 — Digital World Acquisition Corp. surge 846% as retail traders piled in after it announced a merger with Trump Media & Technology Group and the former president said he was planning a new social media platform called Truth Social. Now shares of the Donald Trump-linked special purpose acquisition company are trading at around the $100, or nearly 10 times the SPAC’s $10 debut in September.
4. Apple Now All-In on In-House M1 Chips — the new line of MacBook Pro models that Apple announced are the last of the Mac laptops to get the company’s in-house processor called the M1. That comes less than a year after the company first unveiled the chip, which replaces the Core family from Intel Corp. Apple is now selling only four models of its desktop computers that still use Intel processors. Three of those—two older iMacs and a Mac Mini—are available in newer generations with the M1 chip. The other is the Mac Pro, a workstation level beast that starts at $6,000 and actually runs on Intel’s Xeon processors that are normally used to power servers. Apple’s lack of a server-level chip might keep that machine in Intel’s camp for a while, but its nosebleed price severely limits the market.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

“The economy is growing, and the economic reports are positive. Corporate earnings are rising and beating expectations. The media carry only good news. Securities markets strengthen. Investors grow increasingly confident and optimistic. Risk is perceived as being scarce and benign. Investors think of risk-bearing as a sure route to profit. Greed motivates behavior. Demand for investment opportunities exceeds supply. Asset prices rise beyond intrinsic value. Capital markets are wide open, making it easy to raise money or roll over debt. Defaults are few. Skepticism is low and faith is high, meaning risky deals can be done. No one can imagine things going wrong. No favorable development seems improbable. Everyone assumes things will get better forever. Investors ignore the possibility of loss and worry only about missing opportunities, No one can think of a reason to sell, and no one is forced to sell. Buyers outnumber sellers. Investors would be happy to buy if the market dips. Prices reach new highs. Media celebrate this exciting event. Investors become euphoric and carefree. Security holders marvel at their own intelligence; perhaps they buy more. Those who’ve remained on the sidelines feel remorse; thus they capitulate and buy. Prospective returns are low (or negative). Risk is high. Investors should forget about missing opportunity and worry only about losing money. This is the time for caution!” ― Howard Marks

1. Fed Officials Saw Taper Starting in Mid-November or Mid-December — Federal Reserve officials broadly agreed last month they should start reducing emergency pandemic support for the economy in mid-November or mid-December amid increasing concern over inflation. Fed officials last month left interest rates near zero but signaled they were close to beginning to scale back their $120 billion in monthly asset purchases. Chair Jerome Powell told reporters during a post-meeting press conference the process could start as soon as November and would likely end around mid-2022.
2. L.A. Port to Operate Around the Clock to Ease Cargo Logjams — one of the country’s busiest ports will operate around the clock in an effort to ease cargo bottlenecks that have led to shortages and higher consumer costs, a change announced by the White House as it seeks to alleviate supply-chain issues ahead of the holidays. By going to 24/7, the Port of Los Angeles will join the neighboring Port of Long Beach, Calif., which started doing a similar thing last month. Major ports in Asia and Europe have operated around the clock for years. The Port of Long Beach struggled to increase cargo flows after it extended its opening hours, with truckers complaining that restrictions put on them for picking up and dropping off containers were too onerous. Shortages of truck drivers and warehouse workers have also posed problems across supply chains. It remains unclear how many of the terminals in Los Angeles will operate 24/7 and when those operations will begin.
3. Moderna Booster Shot Backed by FDA Advisory Panel — Vaccine experts advising the Food and Drug Administration voted 19 to 0 Thursday to recommend authorization of an extra dose of Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 shot, a key step in making booster doses available to millions more people. An advisory panel voted in favor of giving a Moderna booster shot at least six months after the second dose, to adults 65 years and older, as well as adults under 65 who are at high risk of severe Covid-19 or serious complications because of their jobs, living conditions or underlying medical conditions. The FDA has authorized the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE for adolescents. The agency also has already greenlighted booster doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for seniors and adults at high risk of Covid-19 who received the shots already and are at least six months past their first vaccination.
4. J&J Covid-19 Booster Shot Endorsed by FDA Advisers — the panel of outside doctors and experts voted 19-0 to recommend that all adults who received a first dose of the J&J vaccine should get the second dose at least two months later. J&J had requested that the FDA authorization recommend people wait six months, though they could get the booster as early as two months after the first dose. The company presented evidence showing varying effects when the booster is given between two and six months after the first dose.
The meeting is the latest by experts whose counsel the FDA has sought before making authorization decisions.

The week ahead — Economic data from Econoday.com:

“But most investors do capitulate eventually. They simply run out of the resolve needed to hold out. Once the asset has doubled or tripled in price on the way up — or halved on the way down — many people feel so stupid and wrong, and are so envious of those who’ve profited from the fad or side-stepped the decline, that they lose the will to resist further. My favorite quote on this subject is from Charles Kindleberger: “There is nothing as disturbing to one’s well-being and judgment as to see a friend get rich” (Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, 1989). Market participants are pained by the money that others have made and they’ve missed out on, and they’re afraid the trend (and the pain) will continue further. They conclude that joining the herd will stop the pain, so they surrender. Eventually they buy the asset well into its rise or sell after it has fallen a great deal. In other words, after failing to do the right thing in stage one, they compound the error by taking that action in stage three, when it has become the wrong thing to do. That’s capitulation. It’s a highly destructive aspect of investor behavior during cycles, and a great example of psychology-induced error at its worst.” ― Howard Marks

1. SEC Chief Says the U.S. Won’t Ban Cryptocurrencies — Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler said last week that the government’s focus is on ensuring that the industry adheres to investor and consumer protection rules, anti-money laundering regulations and tax laws. He made the comments at a House hearing after a Republican lawmaker asked if a China-like prohibition was on the table in the U.S. He added that any ban would probably have to be legislated by Congress.
China issued its sweeping ultimatum against crypto trading last month, saying all transactions were off limits and that it would move aggressively to root out token mining. The announcement followed months of escalating Chinese warnings about virtual currencies.
2. McConnell Offers Democrats a Short-Term Debt Ceiling Increase — McConnell’s proposal would increase the limit on federal borrowing by a fixed dollar amount that would be sufficient to tide the Treasury over until December, when Congress would have to vote again to avoid a default. That vote could come at about the same time that Democrats are attempting to move a massive tax and spending package. That’s also when Congress will have to act again to fund the government as part of regular fiscal-year spending, and avert a shutdown. McConnell is putting his offer out as a compromise, but it also would tie Democrats to raising a specific level of debt — rather than a suspension as done under the Trump administration — and that number can then be used in political attack ads in congressional election campaigns.
3. Pfizer Asks FDA to Authorize Covid-19 Vaccine in Young Children — Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech have asked U.S. health regulators to green light their Covid-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old, setting up the shot to potentially be available to millions of youngsters in a matter of weeks. The FDA may clear the shot for use in the youths before November, which would mean pediatrician offices, schools and other locations could get doses to give as early as Halloween. There are more than 28 million children ages 5 to 11 in the U.S., according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The FDA has already scheduled for a panel of outside experts to review the data Oct. 26. The agency doesn’t have to follow the panel’s recommendation, but normally does.
4. U.S. Job Growth Falls to Slowest Pace of Year — The economy created 194,000 jobs in September, the smallest gain since December 2020 and down from 366,000 jobs added in August, the Labor Department said Friday. Many workers gave up a job search and exited the labor force last month. The smaller pool of labor meant that despite the slowdown in hiring, the unemployment rate fell to 4.8% last month from 5.2% in August. The figures add to evidence that fears about the coronavirus and global supply constraints continue to hold back the economic recovery. The biggest factor behind last month’s weak payroll gain was a decline in public-sector jobs, mainly at schools.