Phony Monetized Rally Rocks On

With the Fed monetizing the nation's debt and expanding its balance sheet faster than a Keynesian can say "Zimbabwe", the big bear rally from hell continued through its 9th week and there's no sign of it slowing down.

From what were the worst economic conditions in the first quarter of 2009, the latter part of March thereon has been nothing but a mindless joyride, or a joyless mind-ride, depending on your predisposition. Straight up from 12-year lows has been the order of the many days since March 9, so, with another week coming to an end, it's time to take account and see just how far the indices have advanced.

Following are the closing figures from the four main food groups, er, indices tracked here, with closing numbers from March 9 and May 8, with point and percentage gains:

Dow Jones Industrials: 6,547.05, 8,574.88, +2027.83, +31%
S&P 500: 676.53, 929.23, +252.70, +37%
NASDAQ: 1268.64, 1739.00, +470.36, +37%
NYSE Composite: 4226.31, 6000.39, +1774.08, +42%

WOW! I need say no more, but, due to the vastness of open space on the internet, I shall.

Stocks, of course, are prone to fluctuations. They are also prone to sentiment, manipulation and propaganda, such as has been devised by the Wall Street syndicate and government technocrats and tossed, chum-like, to the zombified public by the slavish mainstream and financial media, that we've turned a corner, the recession has bottomed out, etc., sounding so much like the Bush administration's assessments of progress in the Iraq war circa 2004-2008 that it's uncanny, even eerie.

Dow 8,574.65, +164.80 (1.96%)
NASDAQ 1,739.00, +22.76 (1.33%)
S&P 500 929.23, +21.84 (2.41%)
NYSE Composite 6,000.39, +200.30 (3.45%)

Advancing issues overwhelmed decliners, 5246-1335, though new lows outweighed new highs, 97-58. Volume was very high, just about the same as yesterday's level.

NYSE Volume 1,895,686,000
NASDAQ Volume 3,200,076,000

Oil went up another $1.92, to $58.56, a six-month high. Gold fell back 60 cents, to $914.90, as Central banks have begun paying agents to dump the yellow metal, as noted by negative real lease rates. Silver responded in sympathy, falling 8 cents to $13.96.

The official unemployment figure was boosted to 8.9%, while the real, unofficial unemployment figure - which includes people who have given up and those unwillingly working part-time - stands at 18%.

But, never mind those stats. Free money, dudes! Step up and make some dough!

That's all I've got this fine Friday afternoon. C YA!