Stocks Drop on Carl Icahn Comments?

So, is Carl Icahn the modern-day version of legendary investor J.P. Morgan, upon whose words - as legend has it - hung the fate of stocks and the economy?

Doubtful. Icahn may have a high opinion of himself, but he's probably not as influential as the TV-commercial version of E.F. Hutton, the company which used the tag line, "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen."

Whatever the case, after Icahn made remarks at an investment conference today, saying he was "very cautious," stocks took an immediate nosedive, sending the Dow into negative territory after gaining as many as 68 points earlier in the session.

More likely, Icahn was the scapegoat du jour, giving cover to a well-planned exit by heavy holders in kay equities.

Markets don't need excuses to move one way or the other, or even to do nothing, but, in the age of instant communications, instant causation is expected, though it is almost never on the mark.

Icahn is no financial genius. Anyone with two eyes can see that stocks are priced nearly to perfection and ripe for a correction, though guessing ahead on that assumption, as has been well-learned over the past five years, can be a costly maneuver.

Stocks, as J.P. Morgan once said when pressed for direction, "will fluctuate."

And that's exactly what they did today.

Dow 15,976.02, +14.32 (0.09%)
Nasdaq 3,949.07, -36.90 (0.93%)
S&P 500 1,791.53, -6.65 (0.37%)
10-Yr Bond 2.68%, -0.03
NYSE Volume 3,152,413,250
Nasdaq Volume 1,793,143,750
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2127-3522
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 496-45
WTI crude oil: 93.03, -0.81
Gold: 1,272.30, -15.10
Silver: 20.36, -0.41
Corn: 421.00, -9.50 (new low)

New Record Highs for Dow, S&P on Yellen Lovve-Fest Hearings

Wall Street has shown its liking for incoming Fed Chairman Yellen, so the congress better damn well approve him.

Dow 15,876.22, +54.59 (0.35%)
S&P 500 1,790.62, +8.62 (0.48%)
Nasdaq, 3,972.74, +7.16 (0.18%)
10-Year Note 2.70, -0.02
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3205-2398
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 423-63
WTI crude oil: 93.76, -0.12
Gold: 1,286.30, +17.90
Silver: 20.72, +0.28
Corn: 426.50, -3.25

Stocks Rock; Yellen Ready to Kiss Up to Congress

Nice gains for the Dow and S&P, which both set new all-time high closes. The party won't stop, according to sources close to Mr. Yellen, who is expected to convince congress that the Fed needs to continue manipulating markets and driving the purchasing power of the dollar into oblivion with even more intervention and easy money policies.

Life , for working Americans, could be wonderful if the Fed can figure out how to induce any kind of wage inflation.

We are a hopeful nation.

Dow 15,821.63, +70.96 (0.45%)
S&P 1,782.00, +14.31 (0.81%)
Nasdaq 3,965.58, +45.66 (1.16%
10-Year Note: 2.68%, -0.05 (-1.83%)
NYSE Volume: 3,320,000
NASDAQ Volume: 1,769,363,821
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3777-1858
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 323-93
WTI crude oil: 93.88, +0.84
Gold: 1,268.40, -2.80, -0.336
Silver: 429.75, -2.50

Stocks Little Changed on Veteran's Day

With bond markets closed and many traders enjoying a three-day weekend by virtue of the Veteran's Day holiday, there was little to get excited about in equity markets or elsewhere.

The day's smallish gains were led by Consumer Cyclicals, Healthcare and Technology, counterbalanced by downside moves in Basic Materials and Telecoms, which lagged the market.

Volume was noticeably in short supply as was volatility, reverting back to levels seen this past summer. Despite the lack of interest, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a new all-time high, with the NASDAQ and S&P sporting smaller gains.

New highs continued to outnumber new lows, though not as substantially as in recent weeks. The advance-decline line was nearly static, with winners beating losers by less than a hundred issues.

Commodities were largely flat-lining, though corn got a bit of a bid off recent 52-week lows.

Unless there's some earth-shaking development on Tuesday, tomorrow could be just as listless, as there are no meaningful economic data releases until Wednesday, and even then, those are hardly impacting.

Dow 15,783.10, +21.32 (0.14%)
Nasdaq 3,919.79, +1.67 (0.04%)
S&P 500 1,771.89, +1.28 (0.07%)
10-Yr Bond 2.75% 0.00
NYSE Volume 2,507,799,000
Nasdaq Volume 1,538,911,625
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 2840-2754
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 238-56
WTI crude oil: 95.14, +0.54
Gold: 1,281.10, -3.50
Silver: 21.28, -0.035
Corn: 434.75, +8.00

Green Arrows for Stocks as Non-Farm Payrolls Surprise

As the work-week ended, everything was up, except, of course, gold and silver, because we just can't have those ancient relics of real money ruining the fiat-fest currently underway.

After the government reported October non-farm payrolls up a shocking 204,000 in October and revised August and September reports upward as well, futures slid, in sympathy with the idea that the Fed would - due to the "strong" jobs figure - reconsider its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying binge and begin to taper such efforts.

However, once the markets opened, good news was once again good news, and stocks staged a massive rally, erasing all of the prior day's losses on the major indices, sending the Dow Industrials to another record close.

Mortgage rates rocketed higher on the news, as did treasuries, the 10-year note ripping upward by 13 bips.

The logic may be a bit twisted - then again, what, concerning Wall Street and our current "crisis management" economy isn't? - but here's the take: Sure, the effects of the government shutdown the first two weeks of October were minimized, and the economy was creating jobs, but the unemployment rate actually rose - from 7.2 to 7.3% - due to a decline in the labor force participation rate, which has steadily trended downward for the past decade, making what looked, on the surface, as good news, actually bad news for the economy, which is good news for stocks because the Fed will just keep buying up treasuries and MBS, sloshing even more cheap money into the already liquidity-bloated system.

As usual, bankers and their kindred traders, hedgies and speculators were the main beneficiaries, after selling yesterday on a move that suggests the payroll data was privately leaked, were able to buy on the cheap Friday morning.

That's about the only analysis that makes any sense, though rational, logical arguments aren't always adequate predictors of market economics and trading patterns.

The guys with the inside scoop always do better than Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe and Jane. And they do it every day, whether the market is up or down, because they own the data.

Dow 15,761.78, +167.80 (1.08%)
Nasdaq 3,919.23, +61.90 (1.60%)
S&P 500 1,770.61, +23.46 (1.34%)
10-Yr Bond 2.75%, +0.13
NYSE Volume 3,770,251,500
Nasdaq Volume 1,934,757,875
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 3706-1971
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 231-99
WTI crude oil: 94.60, +0.40
Gold: 1,284.60, -23.90
Silver: 21.32, -0.34
Corn: 426.75, +6.25