Cohn's Departure Shakes Wall Street; What is WABOL?

Stocks spent the better part of the session pondering the unchanged line, bouncing from gains to losses back to gains by the end of the day, but those gains were marginal, as the bigger news broke after the close.

Supposedly in response to President Trump's proposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, Chief Economic Advisor to the president, Gary Cohn, resigned his position just before the nightly news broadcast at 6:00 pm ET.

Cohn, former president and COO at investment bank, Goldman Sachs, is highly regarded on Wall Street, thus, his departure from the administration puts the nation's major corporations (and especially those in the financial services sector) at odds with the president. Add to that defections from his own party in the form of comments from House Speaker Paul Ryan and the dutious declarations of defiance from Democrats in House and Senate, and the president is again on his own, skating on some very thin ice.

With stocks reacting in varied fashion - the Nikkei and Hang Seng were both down overnight, while European exchanges were mixed at midday - Trump's foray into the international trade arena has sparked no small degree of interest and disparagement.

While Trump has only announced his intention to impose steel and aluminum tariffs of 25% and 10%, the reactions have been vociferous and without restraint. It remains to be seen whether the president actually goes ahead with his plan (he likely will) and how actual trade will be affected, with reciprocal tariffs and retaliatory measures sure to come from trading partners around the world.

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What is WABOL?

Fearless Rick, publisher and chief writer for the Money Daily blog and parent Downtown Magazine has coined a new internet acronym, referenced as WABOL, for "What A Bunch Of Losers."

As such, the acronym WABOL can be employed in any situation involving two or more people that may be the subject of negative commentary, for example:

The New England Patriots
Any gathering of politicians
Public employees

You get the idea. Fearless Rick coined the term. Yes, he did, and this is proof.

WABOL

Dow Jones Industrial Average March Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
3/1/18	24,608.98	-420.22	-420.22
3/2/18	24,538.06	-70.92	-491.14
3/5/18	24,874.76	+336.70	-154.44
3/6/18	24,884.12	+9.36	-145.08

At the Close, Tuesday, March 6, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,884.12, +9.36 (+0.04%)
NASDAQ: 7,372.01, +41.30 (+0.56%)
S&P 500: 2,728.12, +7.18 (+0.26%)
NYSE Composite: 12,720.77, +40.04 (+0.32%)