Showing posts with label markets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label markets. Show all posts

Monday, September 11, 2017

Stocks Erase Previous Week's Losses with Monday Gains; US Government Debt Surpasses $20 Trillion

Within the first few moments after the opening bell, the major indices - with the notable exception of the NASDAQ - had eviscerated the losses from last week. The NASDAQ almost wiped off last week's 75-point loss, but not quite. The other indices moved radically higher, the S&P setting a new all-time closing high, as did the NYSE.

Hurricane Irma failed to live up to disaster speculation, President Trump seems to have found his best stride, picking off the budget, debt ceiling and disaster relief debates all in one fell swoop, and the tensions over North Korea seem to have subsided, for the present.

Thus, stock investors saw smooth sailing to push already inflated prices even higher with nary a care for valuation. It is this very sort of nonchalance that usually leads to major corrections, but one has failed to materialize. That's not to say that it won't, but, with the Federal Reserve and their cohorts in centra banking picking up any slack, there is no reason to end any rally.

All of this enthusiasm for stocks occurs after this past Friday the US government debt surpassed the magical $20 trillion mark, which gives one pause to ponder the wisdom of markets. Albeit, the mainstream news media failed entirely to report this salient fact.

As the saying - attributable to John Maynard Keynes - goes, "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

Hedge accordingly.

At the Close, Monday, September 11, 2016:
Dow: 22,057.37, +259.58 (+1.19%)
NASDAQ 6,432.26, +72.07 (+1.13%)
S&P 500: 2,488.11, +26.68 (+1.08%)
NYSE Composite: 12,010.37, +122.39 (+1.03%)

Monday, April 18, 2016

Dow Tops 18,000. Why?

Just guessing, but the last time the Dow was trading at or above 18,000 was sometime in the summer of 2015, probably prior to August.

Be that as it may, having the Dow trading at the level it was nine months ago means that something must have been amiss, because, certainly, the indices are always rising, aren't they?

The number 18,000 poses more questions than answers, to which Money Daily offers none, only more questions as to the sustainability of such an awesome, inspired number, fully without any kind of fundamental support, since the quality of corporate earnings has been disintegrating at an astonishing rate.

Not only that, but the obfuscation and sheer audacity of the lies and pro forma earnings releases (as opposed to the traditionally well-favored GAAP) leads one to believe that the market has lost all bearings and is about to crash upon some unseen shoals while the cruiser's captain is nodded out, asleep at the wheel.

Alas, the market has no captain, as contrary to the desires of the Janet Yellens, Mario Draghis or even George Soroses (some kind of disease, there) of the world might think otherwise.

No, the market is a mechanism of many moving parts, and, being such, can be wound to whatever pulsation or amplitude any broken parts may render it. Make no mistake, there are many broken parts to the market, especially when it comes to equity markets, where valuations have been so absurdly distorted as to become meaningless in a value-oriented frame of mind.

Nevertheless, here we are, so break out the party hats?

Next up: the NASDAQ blasts through the 5,000 barrier.

Really?
S&P 500: 2,094.34, +13.61 (0.65%)
Dow: 18,004.16, +106.70 (0.60%)
NASDAQ: 4,960.02, +21.80 (0.44%)

Crude Oil 41.28 -1.03% Gold 1,230.30 -0.38% EUR/USD 1.1310 -0.02% 10-Yr Bond 1.77 +1.20% Corn 380.50 -0.13% Copper 2.16 -0.02% Silver 16.19 -0.36% Natural Gas 1.94 +1.84% Russell 2000 1,139.28 +0.74% VIX 13.35 -1.98% BATS 1000 20,682.61 0.00% GBP/USD 1.4290 +0.10% USD/JPY 109.1170 +0.26%