With September Non-Farm Payroll Data On Deck, Stocks Post Record Highs

Even though ADP reported the weakest jobs numbers in 11 months Wednesday, investors shrugged off the data and limped higher, with all major indices closing at fresh all-time highs.

ADP private employment figures for September showed a gain of 135,000 jobs, with the most damage done to firms with less than 20 employees, which registered a loss of 11,000 jobs. The firm, which tracks private payrolls, was quick to point out that hurricanes Harvey and Irma accounted for 50-60,000 fewer jobs created, noting that many mom-and-pop-like outfits were forced to close during and after the disasters that covered much of Florida and the Houston metropolitan area.

Without doing the requisite math, October's figures are likely to be higher by an order of magnitude, unless Mother Nature unleashes more of her wrath on America's southern states.

The data which ADP provides usually presages the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Non-farm Payroll release, due out on Friday, October 6.

Wall Street will likely remain unfazed with a low NFP number, taking the easy way out by blaming storms and natural disasters for the poor showing.

Life goes on, new jobs or not.

At the Close, Wednesday, October 4, 2017:
Dow: 22,661.64, +19.97 (+0.09%)
NASDAQ: 6,534.63, +2.91 (+0.04%)
S&P 500: 2,537.74, +3.16 (+0.12%)
NYSE Composite: 12,304.67, +1.79 (+0.01%)

Stocks Race to All-Time Highs... Again

It's getting to be like a broken record. All of the major indices leapt to all-time closing highs on Tuesday.

Presented without comment, because, really, what is one to say?

At the Close, Tuesday, October 3, 2017:
Dow: 22,641.67, +84.07 (+0.37%)
NASDAQ: 6,531.71, +15.00 (+0.23%)
S&P 500: 2,534.58, +5.46 (+0.22%)
NYSE Composite: 12,302.88, +38.21 (+0.31%)

Stocks Start Fourth Quarter Off Like Rocket Launch

Borrowing a phrase from Buzz Lightyear from the Pixar movie, Toy Story, US equity markets are on a trajectory to "infinity and beyond," blasting off the fourth quarter with massive gains based entirely on the notion that it's the beginning of a new quarter.

That mindset alone - that there's always a good reason to follow the herd and buy, buy, buy, has propelled stocks for the better part of the last nine years. While that has been a boon to monied investors and the big brokerages, it's also been a gentle salve to the collective psyches of pensioners, at least those of the present and future beneficiary class.

This is a familiar cry during manias, booms, and bubbles which eventually become scorned, busted and bursted. The laws of physics and the loose interpretations of economics cannot be unilaterally undone by the stock markets, no matter how much help is - or has been - given by the Fed and other central banks.

Increases in the prices of stocks at the tail end of a long bull market - and this is the second longest in history - need to rationale. To a large degree, they are driven by their own momentum and the rush to "get in" or "get more" by the captains of fantasy known widely as investment advisors.

At this juncture, prices will probably continue to rise until something finally snaps. What the snap will be, or when it will occur, is the great unknown. For the time being, there still seems to be nothing to derail the freight train to wealth and riches that is the US stock market.

Nothing.

At the Close, Monday, October 2, 2017:
Dow: 22,557.60, +152.51 (+0.68%)
NASDAQ: 6,516.72, +20.76 (+0.32%)
S&P 500: 2,529.12, +9.76 (+0.39%)
NYSE Composite: 12,264.84, +55.68 (+0.46%)

Stocks End Third Quarter with Solid Week

Stocks were up nicely for the final week of the third quarter, posting solid gains for the period from July through September.

At the Close, Friday, September 29:
Dow: 22,405.09, +23.89 (+0.11%)
NASDAQ: 6,495.96, +42.51 (+0.66%)
S&P 500: 2,519.36, +9.30 (+0.37%)
NYSE Composite: 12,209.16, +29.85 (+0.25%)

For the week:
Dow: +55.50 (+0.25%)
NASDAQ: +69.04 (+1.07%)
S&P 500: +17.14 (+0.68%)
NYSE Composite: +57.37 (+90.47%)

Has the United States Been in a Depression Since 2007?

We're going to dispense with the usual stock market blather today and promote an article posted on Zero Hedge titled, "We Are Already In Depression (If Borrowing Money Is Not Income) written by Baker & Company Advisory Group (Tim Baker).

The article is available HERE.

At the Close, Thursday, September 28, 2017:
Dow: 22,381.20, +40.49 (+0.18%)
NASDAQ: 6,453.45, +0.19 (0.00%)
S&P 500: 2,510.06, +3.02 (+0.12%)
NYSE Composite: 12,179.33, +21.68 (+0.18%)