Stocks tumbled, then stumbled to an unimpressive finish on the first trading day of 2019, leaving doubt in the minds of many after the rout that was December, 2018.
What's more impressive than chasing stocks are the devotees of Marvel comics, especially the 12-cent variety from the early 60s. If you're in your 60s or older, you may remember this one from your youth. If you gave it away or trashed it, as many of us did, you might be sick to see what it's worth today.
Wow! Who knew that 12 cents could turn into four grand?
Just consider, if one had saved 100 comic books from the early 60s - the ones our parents and teachers said were just a waste of time and money - and kept them in good condition, you might have a nest egg of nearly half a million dollars sitting in a box about two feet high. Ounce for ounce and pound for pound, these early comics are worth in weight more than gold.
Amazing... Spider-Man tomorrow.
Dow Jones Industrial Average January Scorecard:
Date
Close
Gain/Loss
Cum. G/L
1/2/19
23,346.24
+18.78
+18.78
At the Close, Wednesday, January 2, 2019:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 23,346.24, +18.78 (+0.08%)
NASDAQ: 6,665.94, +30.66 (+0.46%)
S&P 500: 2,510.03, +3.18 (+0.13%)
NYSE Composite: 11,383.53, +9.14 (+0.08%)
Finishing out the week with a lackluster session that had the Dw up nearly another 100 points, the rally that began on May 26 - and which Money Daily then predicted would run 1000 points - is, as of Friday, good for a cool 747 points, rising, with a few bumps and grinds along the way, from 24,083.83 (April 25 close), to the current closing price of 24,831.17.
Unlike the NASDAQ (which finished lower on Friday), the S&P (which has seen two down days in the past seven), and the NYSE Composite (up six straight days) the Dow has risen each of the past seven sessions, although two of those sessions - the first and the fourth, which respectively saw gains of just five, and two points - have not been considered very inspirational nor insightful.
Still, stocks continue to ramp higher. They'll keep doing this until the herd of traders, lemming-like, will turn away for a few days or decide that they'd rather hold onto art or comic books or Beanie Babies or baseball cards, vintage cars, or oil futures while their favored pieces of dingy, junky corporate paper wither away over a longer period of time and get revalued at more appropriate prices.
That's the way Wall Street has always worked, and, despite all the howling from pundits, idiots and idiosyncratic voices one may value or disavow, it is the way it will always work.
Until it changes, the world is stuck with Wall Street and its various iterations in London, Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and the various bourses of the civilized world, trading in debt and equity instruments of which the average investor knows little, expects much, and is happy to pump money into over vast swatches of time.
This kind of activity, viewed from an outside perspective, might seem odd. People make money from their various endeavors, only to pay bills, build up debt (mortgages, college funds, credit cards), and give the rest to some known or unknown entity to purchase partial shares of megalithic international corporations, giving said corporations vast amounts of money and power to invest, divest, spend, grow, or waste.
How much money is eventually a waste by corporations never enters the equation, though it's likely to be an enormous sum of money, which is probably why it's never mentioned.
For certain, some corporations do some good, but others are merely there for the taking, the tops of them skimmed by the ubermeisters of the investing world, the whales, the one-percenters, the government and probably some reckless speculators. The rest is left to the proletariat, the pensioners, the poor people.
A good question to ask a professional financial advisor is whether it would be wise to sell off a large portion of one's money in stocks and pay off all of one's debt, including the voracious eater of happiness, the 30-year mortgage. The stock answer is "no," followed by "no," and "oh, no."
Paying off one's mortgage would put banks out of business (it wouldn't really), and without banks, well, we wouldn't have, um, well... you see where this is going.
A long, long time ago, men and women owned land, raised their own crops, husbanded their own animals, taught their own children and bore whatever good or evil the earth, sun, and nature would bestow upon them. That was before the rise of the predator class of bankers, insurers, financiers, and governments. Now we outsource everything, starting with our own existence, the food we eat, to our children, which we send to schools where they are taught shoddily the ways of good citizenship and nothing about good survival and the difference between existence and prolonged suicide.
Your 401k or pension plan may give you comfort, but only indirectly. It's a promise to pay, over time. And promises are often broken. Just look at the divorce rate in developed countries or listen to a politician over a period longer than two years and you might detect that promises and words do not necessitate a brighter future.
Being bound to the whims and fantasies of corporate CEOs, government officials and generally, people whose wealth and power far exceeds your own may be some consolation that you have done well, but, in the end, all you really have is yourself and the land on which you stand, and some of you don't even own that.
Some things to think about, brought to you by music from the 60s.
Bear in mind: 26,616.71.
Dow Jones Industrial Average May Scorecard:
Date
Close
Gain/Loss
Cum. G/L
5/1/18
24,099.05
-64.10
-64.10
5/2/18
23,924.98
-174.07
-238.17
5/3/18
23,930.15
+5.17
-233.00
5/4/18
24,262.51
+332.36
+99.36
5/7/18
24,357.32
+94.81
+194.17
5/8/18
24,360.21
+2.89
+197.06
5/9/18
24,542.54
+182.33
+379.39
5/10/18
24,739.53
+196.99
+576.38
5/11/18
24,831.17
+91.64
+668.02
At the Close, Friday, May 11, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,831.17, +91.64 (+0.37%)
NASDAQ: 7,402.88, -2.0913 (-0.03%)
S&P 500: 2,727.72, +4.65 (+0.17%)
NYSE Composite: 12,761.82, +30.18 (+0.24%)
For the Week:
Dow: +568.66 (+2.34%)
NASDAQ: +193.27 (+2.68%)
S&P 500: +64.30 (+2.41%)
NYSE Composite: +268.47 (+2.15%)
What's more impressive than chasing stocks are the devotees of Marvel comics, especially the 12-cent variety from the early 60s. If you're in your 60s or older, you may remember this one from your youth. If you gave it away or trashed it, as many of us did, you might be sick to see what it's worth today.
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