Dow Touches 18,000 Agains, Fails

After a shaky start, the Dow - and the other equity averages - erased the morning's losses and finally managed to end the day with just minor losses.

The industrials punched through the 18,000 mark again, but could not sustain the rally, closing just shy of that critical, psychological marker.

This pattern has been in play more often than should be mentioned, prompting belief that the Federal Reserve itself is intervening in stocks, something - in this dystopian reality - that should surprise nobody.

In any case, if the Fed has "the back" of all market plungers, then why not just go ahead and buy your ticket to the good life, via Amazon, or Google, or Apple, perhaps even taking a flyer on the occasional small cap or some oil driller?

If it were only so easy. A wise man once said, "if it was that easy, we'd all be rich." For the monied gangsters doing business on the South end of Manhattan island, perhaps it is so. But, they have other problems, like margin calls, undersized genitalia and assorted mental maladies.

The world of finance is especially rigged to make certain people rich. For the rest of us, it's pretty much a crap-shoot, which is why so many, especially since the economic calamity of 2008-09, have opted to not play any more.

Tomorrow is Friday, and, for much of the expanse of the great United States of America, the weather should be pleasant, if not outright spectacular. Punch in, punch out, grab an adult beverage and had for the patio. Fire up the grill and cook something.

Money doesn't buy happiness. There is surely more to living than counting your shekels. Besides, did you see the gains in silver the past two days?

Something is afoot.

Thursday's Troubled Trip:
S&P 500: 2,115.48, -3.64 (0.17%)
Dow: 17,985.19, -19.86 (0.11%)
NASDAQ: 4,958.62, -16.03 (0.32%)

Crude Oil 50.42 -0.28% Gold 1,271.90 -0.06% EUR/USD 1.1314 -0.04% 10-Yr Bond 1.68 -1.52% Corn 426.00 -1.22% Copper 2.04 0.00% Silver 17.28 +0.10% Natural Gas 2.95 +3.19% Russell 2000 1,181.20 -0.65% VIX 14.64 +3.98% BATS 1000 20,677.17 0.00% GBP/USD 1.4462 +0.02% USD/JPY 106.9945 +0.03%

Dow Closes Above 18,000; SPX Within 15 Points Of All-Time High; Silver Rockets Over 17; Cruce Oil At 11-Month High

No commentary required.

S&P 500: 2,119.12, +6.99 (0.33%)
Dow: 18,005.05, +66.77 (0.37%)
NASDAQ: 4,974.64, +12.89 (0.26%)

Crude Oil 51.52 +0.57% Gold 1,266.90 +0.36% EUR/USD 1.1402 +0.02% 10-Yr Bond 1.71 -0.41% Corn 432.50 +1.11% Copper 2.07 +0.34% Silver 17.11 +0.77% Natural Gas 2.85 -0.28% Russell 2000 1,188.95 +0.76% VIX 14.08 +0.21% BATS 1000 20,677.17 0.00% GBP/USD 1.4522 +0.03% USD/JPY 106.8950 0.00%

Stocks Rally, Then Fall, In Late-Day Trading

Roughly 2:15 pm EDT, all of the major indices in the US began selling off, apparently for no reason.

Probably more to the point is that the Dow Jones Industrial Average poked above the magical and mysterious 18,000 mark a few times during the session, but could not sustain a rally beyond it.

As has been often suggested and sometimes proven, if the stock market is made up more of psychology than fundamental reality, 18,000 is a price too far to pay for the Dow, even for the most bullish bulls in the china shop that is the NYSE and the NASDAQ.

In any case, stocks closed well off their highs and only a little closer to all-time highs, last seen more than a year ago.

This doesn't appear to be a positive sign for stocks; the truth is that stocks are selling at historically high valuations, a condition that normally precedes a sharp selloff. With the Fed heavily "invested" in stocks, today's sudden reversal of fortune does not bode well, either for the Fed's monetary gimmickry nor for rate increases any time this year.

Those who believe that stocks are the only game in town - and, there's an acronym for that: TINA (There Is No Alternative) - hang on to your hats, gents. The drop may be sudden and deep.

Ouch! That Might Leave A Mark:
S&P 500: 2,112.13, +2.72 (0.13%)
Dow: 17,938.28, +17.95 (0.10%)
NASDAQ: 4,961.75, -6.96 (0.14%)

Crude Oil 50.38 +0.04% Gold 1,247.30 +0.02% EUR/USD 1.1358 +0.04% 10-Yr Bond 1.71 -0.58% Corn 427.00 -0.06% Copper 2.05 +0.17% Silver 16.41 +0.07% Natural Gas 2.86 +1.82% Russell 2000 1,179.97 +0.26% VIX 14.05 +2.93% BATS 1000 20,677.17 0.00% GBP/USD 1.4540 +0.02% USD/JPY 107.3025 -0.03%

Janet Yellen And The Fed Are Dangerous To Your Well-Being

Apologies for the blaring headline, but this is getting a bit ridiculous. Truthfully, the headline suggested by our ace writer, Fearless Rick, had a definite Donald Trump tone to it, so it was scrapped in favor of the watered-down version.

For seven years - since the great collapse of 2008-09 - we've been listening to the babble coming out of the mouths of various Federal Reserve governors, and none of it was believable nor helpful. The US economy is circling the toilet drain, and various economies around the globe have already been flushed down the sinkhole of fetid monetary policy.

Here is just one quote from Janet Yellen in her address to the World Affairs Council (another bunch of clueless monetarists) that speaks volumes about what she knows and doesn't know:

I see good reason to expect that the positive forces supporting employment growth and higher inflation will continue to outweigh the negative ones.

If Mrs. Yellen would care to elaborate on just what those positive forces could be, it's expected that almost nothing would come out of her mouth, because she's doing what she does best, spout nonsense, in the best tradition of the Maestro himself, the venerable former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan. In all honesty, just what positive forces are there supporting employment growth after last week's disastrous non-farm payroll report for May, in which the US economy created a paltry 38,000 jobs when 164,000 were expected.

Additionally, Chair Yellen believes inflation is good for the economy, when most people in the real world would like to see some softening of prices and/or an increase in their wages. On the one hand, deflation in consumer prices stretches one's money; on the other, wage hikes usually occur when the economy is growing robustly. Since Americans can't have both at once, it is supposed that we'll get the former, and like it.

Naturally, the bozos on Wall Street took all of it in stride and just bought more overpriced stocks:


S&P 500: 2,109.41, +10.28 (0.49%)
Dow: 17,920.33, +113.27 (0.64%)
NASDAQ: 4,968.71, +26.20 (0.53%)

Crude Oil 49.69 +2.20% Gold 1,247.70 +0.39% EUR/USD 1.1362 -0.02% 10-Yr Bond 1.72 +1.12% Corn 426.75 +2.03% Copper 2.12 +0.31% Silver 16.49 +0.73% Natural Gas 2.81 +1.41% Russell 2000 1,176.62 +1.07% VIX 13.61 +1.04% BATS 1000 20,677.17 0.00% GBP/USD 1.4455 -0.14% USD/JPY 107.6200 +1.10%

Weak Jobs Number; Worst In Six Years Rattles Market

At the end of the day, the weakest jobs number since 2010 didn't deter stock traders much, though the damage was more severe earlier in the session, another carbon copy of the previous two, with a deep drop at the open, followed by relentless pumping towards the positive.

While Friday's effort left much to be desired, it has now become all-too-obvious that there is no such thing as a fair and open market in US stocks, especially in the face of negative economic data. The federal government and agents of the Fed are adamant about painting a rosy picture of the economy, even though the metrics - especially manufacturing and non-farm payrolls this week - are using a strikingly different palette.

The 38,000 new jobs created in May, as reported by the BLS, was miles below the consensus estimate of 164,000 and gives the Fed much more thinking material as concerns a rate hike, which now appears to be off the table for June, at the very least.

What the number suggests is that despite all the howls from the president, his advisors and others on TV, the economy is in a precarious state, not one in which overheating is even a remote possibility. This would be no time to raise interest rates.

While stocks held their own during a tumultuous week, Friday saw gold and silver rally back, perhaps an indication that all is really not well in the kingdom of Obama.

On The Week:
Dow: -66.16, (-0.37%)
S&P 500: +0.07 (0.00)
NASDAQ: +9.01 (+0.18)

For the Day:
S&P 500: 2,099.13, -6.13 (0.29%)
Dow: 17,807.06, -31.50 (0.18%)
NASDAQ: 4,942.52, -28.85 (0.58%)

Crude Oil 48.90 -0.55% Gold 1,246.50 +2.80% EUR/USD 1.1366 0.00% 10-Yr Bond 1.70 -5.91% Corn 418.25 +0.72% Copper 2.12 +2.42% Silver 16.44 +2.59% Natural Gas 2.76 -0.54% Russell 2000 1,164.14 -0.55% VIX 13.47 -1.17% BATS 1000 20,677.17 0.00% GBP/USD 1.4515 0.00% USD/JPY 106.5450 0.00%