The idea that stocks would erase losses and finish strongly positive after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it was raising the level of threat to that of an international pandemic is just plain perverse.
It's what happens when 70% of the trading is performed by headline scanning algorithms that saw the WHO headline as essentially, "nothing to worry about, we got this."
Nothing could be further from the truth. The coronavirus has spread now to encompass the entire Northern Hemisphere, with Russia the latest to announce cases of the virus within its borders. Italy has issued a six month state of emergency. Two-thirds of China is under some form of travel restriction, quarantine, or other health-related orders. Person-to-person transmission has been reported in at least five countries, including Japan and the United States.
Within two weeks the most recent numbers (9692 confirmed cases, 213 deaths as of January 30) are going to be dwarfed by the magnitude of the spread of this pathogen, and there's still no reliable data on the ratio of confirmed cases to deaths, which range - according to medical experts - from two percent to as high as 12 percent, but nobody actually knows for sure.
The WHO, at its press conference Thursday announcing a global pandemic went out of its way to praise China's efforts to contain the virus. This statement was made only to avoid causing a panic. China was actually slow to report the initial outbreak, initially punishing people who were issuing warnings, eventually acting with little regard to human life, allowing the virus to spread unchecked for weeks.
Wikipedia has about as accurate and compelling a timeline as could be expected.
If the Chinese did such a bang-up job containing this virus, why is it now to be found in more than 25 other countries? Why are flights in and out of China only being banned now, nearly two months after the initial report of this new, deadly strain (December 1 or December 8)?
There's a very good chance, being that China has shut down most transportation facilities in and out of cities and provinces, that food shortages will occur and that more people may die from starvation or other causes than the actual disease.
This virus has been taken far too lightly and is going to continue to spread, virtually unchecked, for months.
Meanwhile, the Senate looks to wrap up the impeachment trial of President Trump on Friday after a vote to allow more witnesses is taken and will likely fail. The Republicans have 50 votes at least with which to defeat the motion, the only wild card being that the presiding judge, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, could conceivably take the unprecedented step of deciding the motion should the vote come down as a 50-50 tie.
He is expected to NOT take that step, as a tie would defeat the measure.
In economic news, the first estimate of 2019 fourth quarter GDP came in at 2.1%, making all of 2019, at 2.3%, the worst year under President Trump. GDP grew by 2.9% in 2018, and 2.4% in 2017.
And, in Virginia, the state assembly is wasting no time making sure citizens cannot defend themselves.
At the Close, Thursday, January 30, 2020:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 28,859.44, +124.99 (+0.43%)
NASDAQ: 9,298.93, +23.77 (+0.26%)
S&P 500: 3,283.66, +10.26 (+0.31%)
NYSE: 13,861.92, +18.11 (+0.13%)
Showing posts with label Supreme Court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supreme Court. Show all posts
Friday, January 31, 2020
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Supreme Court Affirms Health Care Mandate; Stocks Erase Losses on European Rumors
Kiss the US constitution goodbye... or, rather, what's left of it.
When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court breaks ranks with his fellow conservative justices to affirm that all Americans must purchase health care insurance or be fined, siding with four liberal justices - who, by the way, should be stripped of their robes - in a matter of such great economic and political importance, then there's no hope left for the system left by our founding fathers.
Count Chief Justice John Roberts as just another Washington politician either bought and sold by special interests, playing presidential politics serving a master other than the people of the United States. Whatever the case, the law be damned with this horrendous decision, which accomplishes nothing other than to feed more fodder into the cannons of the upcoming political debate.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney immediately went on the offensive, while the White House checked off a mark in the victory column. Choosing to evade the issue of whether the mandate violated the commerce clause, by calling the "penalty" a tax, the five affirming justices simply kicked the can down the road a pace, a maneuver that's well-learned in the halls of power these days.
Next, they'll be telling Americans to quit smoking or be fined, stop eating fatty foods or go to jail or by whatever "legal" means strip common citizens of even more rights while emptying their pockets of any available cash.
It's a sham, much like most of what comes out of Washington, DC, these days. The best solution, on an individual basis, is to ignore the law and resist any and all attempts to circumvent the constitution with passive opposition, or, failing that, take to the streets and fight (the author is dreaming).
After the initial shock and awe over the Supreme Court shocker, stocks continued to trend lower, as they had all day, until, with less than an hour left in the session, news from Europe that Angela Merkel had cancelled a conference call scheduled for tonight had stocks moving well off their lows, finishing with comfortable losses rather than worrisome ones.
The official story of the Dow erasing most of a 177-point decline is, of course, bunk. This was an orchestrated move to get stocks back into a more tenable range of trading as the second quarter comes to an end with Friday's closing bell and make today's closing numbers look more appealing to the herd of sheeple that populate the nation.
Not a thing is going to be resolved in Europe at the latest in a series of meaningless summits, so, for whatever reason, the HFT mechanisms which control 85% of the trading on Wall Street simply went into overdrive on a "risk-on" scenario late in the day.
The move, like most of what passes for economy and trading these days, was another pathetic example of why most individual investors have pulled their money out of stocks altogether and will remain on the sidelines until some semblance of balance and fair play is returned to the equity markets (more wishful thinking).
Meanwhile, commodities were lambasted, with oil down sharply, silver closing at its lowest level of 2012 and gold dropping close to its lower support.
For whatever it's worth, a growing number of Americans and professionals in the fields of finance and economics think the Wall Street casino is a complete and total farce.
Those embracing that line of reasoning are surely on to something.
Dow 12,602.26, -24.75 (0.20%)
NASDAQ 2,849.49, -25.83 (0.90%)
S&P 500 1,329.04, -2.81 (0.21%)
NYSE Composite 7,597.50, -0.55 (0.01%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,753,433,750
NYSE Volume 3,867,150,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2697-2879
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 122-99
WTI crude oil: 77.69, -2.62
Gold: 1,550.40, -28.00
Silver: 26.25, -0.70
When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court breaks ranks with his fellow conservative justices to affirm that all Americans must purchase health care insurance or be fined, siding with four liberal justices - who, by the way, should be stripped of their robes - in a matter of such great economic and political importance, then there's no hope left for the system left by our founding fathers.
Count Chief Justice John Roberts as just another Washington politician either bought and sold by special interests, playing presidential politics serving a master other than the people of the United States. Whatever the case, the law be damned with this horrendous decision, which accomplishes nothing other than to feed more fodder into the cannons of the upcoming political debate.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney immediately went on the offensive, while the White House checked off a mark in the victory column. Choosing to evade the issue of whether the mandate violated the commerce clause, by calling the "penalty" a tax, the five affirming justices simply kicked the can down the road a pace, a maneuver that's well-learned in the halls of power these days.
Next, they'll be telling Americans to quit smoking or be fined, stop eating fatty foods or go to jail or by whatever "legal" means strip common citizens of even more rights while emptying their pockets of any available cash.
It's a sham, much like most of what comes out of Washington, DC, these days. The best solution, on an individual basis, is to ignore the law and resist any and all attempts to circumvent the constitution with passive opposition, or, failing that, take to the streets and fight (the author is dreaming).
After the initial shock and awe over the Supreme Court shocker, stocks continued to trend lower, as they had all day, until, with less than an hour left in the session, news from Europe that Angela Merkel had cancelled a conference call scheduled for tonight had stocks moving well off their lows, finishing with comfortable losses rather than worrisome ones.
The official story of the Dow erasing most of a 177-point decline is, of course, bunk. This was an orchestrated move to get stocks back into a more tenable range of trading as the second quarter comes to an end with Friday's closing bell and make today's closing numbers look more appealing to the herd of sheeple that populate the nation.
Not a thing is going to be resolved in Europe at the latest in a series of meaningless summits, so, for whatever reason, the HFT mechanisms which control 85% of the trading on Wall Street simply went into overdrive on a "risk-on" scenario late in the day.
The move, like most of what passes for economy and trading these days, was another pathetic example of why most individual investors have pulled their money out of stocks altogether and will remain on the sidelines until some semblance of balance and fair play is returned to the equity markets (more wishful thinking).
Meanwhile, commodities were lambasted, with oil down sharply, silver closing at its lowest level of 2012 and gold dropping close to its lower support.
For whatever it's worth, a growing number of Americans and professionals in the fields of finance and economics think the Wall Street casino is a complete and total farce.
Those embracing that line of reasoning are surely on to something.
Dow 12,602.26, -24.75 (0.20%)
NASDAQ 2,849.49, -25.83 (0.90%)
S&P 500 1,329.04, -2.81 (0.21%)
NYSE Composite 7,597.50, -0.55 (0.01%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,753,433,750
NYSE Volume 3,867,150,000
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2697-2879
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 122-99
WTI crude oil: 77.69, -2.62
Gold: 1,550.40, -28.00
Silver: 26.25, -0.70
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