What the experts say

Employment boom for disabled

Some 2 million Americans with a disability have landed a job or started looking for one since the start of the pandemic, said Amina Niasse in Reuters. “That’s an unprecedented 30 percent increase in workforce participation by a group that before the pandemic saw 4 of every 5 disabled individuals on the sidelines, a rate now down to 3 of every 4.” Workforce participation has climbed along with the share of the population that identifies as disabled, a result of higher self-identification by people with mental illnesses and long Covid. But the employment uptick is likely also a result of more companies offering remote work after the pandemic, opening up job opportunities “long shut” to this cohort. Still, with more workers now being pushed back to the office, “the momentum for disabled-worker employment gains is petering out.”

No relief from auto inflation

Price increases are slowing across much of the economy, but the costs of car ownership keep accelerating, said Joe Pinsker in The Wall Street Journal. Car insurance premiums climbed 20.6 percent in January from a year earlier—a spike partly driven by the higher cost of repairs, which rose 7.9 percent.

Parking and other fees have increased by

3.8 percent, “and highway tolls are also up, offsetting the savings from one of the big exceptions, falling gas prices.” All in all, the average new car owner spent $12,182 in autorelated expenses in 2023, up from $10,728 in 2022, AAA reports. And that’s on top of the record-high cost of actually buying a new vehicle, with average transaction prices reaching $47,358 last month, up from $39,813 in January 2021.

A bullish historical forecast

After a record-setting start to the year, the S&P 500 is likely to spike even higher in coming months “if its historical performance is any guide,” said Ray Douglas in the Financial Times. Since 1950, the blue-chip index has gained an average of 14 percent in the 12 months after smashing a record, according to Truist chief market strategist Keith Lerner— but only if “more than a year has passed since its previous high.” The S&P’s first record-high close in mid-January came after a two-year dry spell. Analysts say caution is still required: “the concentration of gains in just a handful of large tech stocks” means a reversal in fortune for those mega-corporations could drag down the entire index.