Index Divergence Not A Pretty Sight; Higher Dollar, Oil, Gas Prices To Kill Economy

Friday's across the board gains in stocks managed to get the Dow into positive territory for the month, but paradoxically, not the week, which included the last day of April, a 148-point decline.

Thus, three of the major indices took it on the collective chins, with only the NASDAQ allowing for gains on a weekly basis. This kind of divergence - often seen in bear markets - is just another signal to astute investors that all is not well in the land of unicorns and lollipops otherwise known as Wall Street.

There's a significant amount of panic on display if one know where to look for it, one the best locations being the dollar index, which has been staging a rather relentless rally since mid-April, rising from 89.42 to 92.89, which may not seem like much on the surface, but in real terms, it's a huge matter to international trade. Companies not nimble enough to adjust to sudden currency movements may be caught flat-footed, on the wrong sides of trades, with losses in capital amounting to staggering sums if not accordingly hedged.

A rising dollar does rather damaging things to trading partners and to the US itself. Most obvious is that a strong dollar makes imports cheaper, dampens commodity prices should cause oil prices to decline, but, since the United States has become the world's largest producer of crude, perversely, oil is rising in tandem with the dollar (by Monday morning it had crested above $70/barrel), a condition which is going to cause some considerable pain to Americans who use more distilled products (gasoline) than any other nation.

If there's anything that will put a lid on economic expansion, it's high fuel prices, and the current level, if it remains so, primarily threatens the budgets of small businesses and individuals, acting as an up-front tax on production and consumption.

Practically every recession in modern history has been tied to the price of oil and/or gas. The current runaway price surge, if not contained and reversed, is likely to send the economy into a vicious tailspin. Since consumer credit is at an all-time high, the average driver cannot afford to spend more on fuel, be it to power an automobile, heat a home, or run a small business.

Once again, nefarious forces are at work, spiking the dollar and the price of crude simultaneously, when there is oil sloshing around everywhere and dollars returning to their US home thanks to congress and the president's tax reforms.

Those dollars, upon return, are being used by corporations for more stock buybacks, boosting - temporarily - stock prices, and are not reaching the consumption level, keeping inflation somewhat in check. The good news is that consumer goods will not skyrocket in price, though getting to the stores (what few of them remain) to buy such will cost more and more.

Greed will go where greed wants, and it always seems to manifest itself most profoundly in the price of a gallon of gas. Thank Larry Kudlow for this windfall for the Exxons and Chevrons of the world as his "king dollar" theory will be tested on the world stage.

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

At the Close, Friday, May 4, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,262.51, +332.36 (+1.39%)
NASDAQ: 7,209.62, +121.47 (+1.71%)
S&P 500: 2,663.42, +33.69 (+1.28%)
NYSE Composite: 12,493.35, +100.84 (+0.81%)

For the Week:
Dow: -48.68 (-0.20%)
NASDAQ: +89.92 (+1.26%)
S&P 500: -6.49 (-0.24%)
NYSE Composite: -100.68 (-0.80%)

When The Bottom Falls Out The Media Might Tell You

Most people who are invested in stocks via an employer-supplied pension plan of 401k don't watch the stock market very closely. Many of them don't even know the stocks in which their fund has invested their money.

Thus, most of these people - which is a rather large segment of the market as a whole, and a very important one - will never know that the Dow Industrials were down nearly 400 points on Thursday, or that the NASDAQ and S&P had similar, scary declines.

Rather, some of these people will note that the Dow gained five points and the other indices were down very little at the end of the day. They will get this information from the nightly network news, which is such an overrated form of communication, largely composed of liars telling lies, that it ought to be banned.

When the bottom finally does fall out of the market, as it nearly did in February, these same idiot non-savants on the television will bleat out doom and gloom and warn that all is not well because our precious corporations are today not worth what we thought they were yesterday, or the day before that.

These people, these casual observers of market mechanics, have only themselves to blame for not taking better care of their money. What kind of country is this that fosters the belief that men in suits from downtown Manhattan are better stewards of our wealth than the people who made the money in the first place?

There's an answer to that somewhat rhetorical question, and it is simply this: a gullible, trusting country, full of good-hearted people who routinely get taken to the cleaners by investment advisors, bankers, and their loving government. And then the press lies to them about it.

It's too bad, because there was once a time these advisors, bankers, and people from government could be trusted to do the right thing. There was a time when the press was free and honest.

Those days are long gone.

Look out below.

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

At the Close, Thursday, May 3, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 23,930.15, +5.17 (+0.02%)
NASDAQ: 7,088.15, -12.75 (-0.18%)
S&P 500: 2,629.73, -5.94 (-0.23%)
NYSE Composite: 12,392.50, -25.56 (-0.21%)

Federal Reserve FOMC Meeting EPIC FAIL; Stocks Battered

The Federal Reserve - yes, those people who made what in 1968 was a hamburger and french fries for about $1.50, today $7.95 on average - snuck in another FOMC rate policy meeting, doing nothing, but suggesting that there will be absolutely three and probably four rate hikes this year.

Market reaction: Initial happiness, followed by a shocking reality. "We're screwed!" was the soundbite of the day from those well-tailored gentlemen and women who trade stocks with your money for a living.

Since - like the eTrade advertisements say - your stockbroker's new car isn't going to pay for itself, the buyers and holders of stocks have once again been taken to the proverbial cleaners.

As we can clearly see from the Money Daily handy Dow scoreboard, "sell in May" is already in play.

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

At the Close, Wednesday, May 2, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 23,924.98, -174.07 (-0.72%)
NASDAQ: 7,100.90, -29.81 (-0.42%)
S&P 500: 2,635.67, -19.13 (-0.72%)
NYSE Composite: 12,418.06, -74.96 (-0.60%)

Stocks Ripped Lower In Early Trade Before Miracle Rally; Signs Of Decline Ominous

After closing out April with the first positive result in three months - a paltry gain of 50.81 points - the Dow Jones Industrial Average began the month of May with a bad stumble, falling by as many as 350 points before rallying miraculously in the afternoon to end the session with a minor loss of just 64 points.

While the first day of May could have been - and probably should have been - a worse result than what the nightly news reports, signs for a continued decline in stocks overall are ominous.

The Dow remains far from all-time highs set in January, and, with earnings season winding down, traders will have a difficult time conjuring up reasons to have faith in equities over the near term.

With many stocks wickedly overvalued, the short-covering rally of Tuesday is likely to be short-lived, though the market still appears to be slightly oversold in the very short term.

April showed the market trading in a sideways direction, though the tilt to the downside is evident and wearing on Wall Street's general optimism. Any little thing could set off a panic, exacerbated by programmed trading and those silly algorithms and ETFs that bounce stocks around like rubber balls on concrete.

After the bell on Tuesday, Apple (AAPL) reported earnings for the most recent quarter that beat analyst estimates.

The company posted earnings of $2.73 per share on $61.1 billion of revenue. Analysts were looking for $2.64 per share on $60.9 billion of revenue, so, it wasn't exactly a blowout quarter, something that will surely be a cause for concern going forward. Apple is supposed to beat every quarter, and usually by leaps and bounds, but the company - which hasn't produced a new product in years - seems to be living more on reputation, and record stock buybacks, than innovation.

Dow Jones Industrial Average May Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
5/1/18	24,099.05	-64.10	-64.10

At the Close, Tuesday, May 1, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,099.05, -64.10 (-0.27%)
NASDAQ: 7,130.70, +64.44 (+0.91%)
S&P 500: 2,654.80, +6.75 (+0.25%)
NYSE Composite: 12,493.02, -22.34 (-0.18%)

Fearless Rick Called The Bear Market; Contributing To A Fund? You Are A Bag-Holder

There are very few people who ascribe to the discipline of Dow Theory.

I, Fearless Rick, am one of them. I am also the only person I know who has read Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations," and I am currently re-reading sections of that lengthy tome because it's important to understand.

I'm making these statements not to blow my own horn, but to point something out that readers of this blog and the millions of non-readers should acknowledge.

When I wrote this post on April 9, I had complete confidence in what I was delivering. There were no caveats, what-ifs, or other murky scenarios by which I could hedge my declaration that the bull market in stocks was over and that the next 18 months to three or four years would be losers for stock holders.

It's nearly a month later - and three months since the Dow Jones Industrial Average topped out at 26,616.71 (sorry, that number has been hard-wired into my brain) on January 26 - and nothing has changed. Stocks are still hovering between their 50 and 200-day moving averages. In fact, since the Dow Transports confirmed the bear market, the Dow Industrials are up - as of today's close - a whopping 184 points, a gain of less than one percent over the past 15 trading days.

Thus, I am here to say that it sure looks like I nailed it, called it, that I'm absolutely right. This is a bear market, and it will be a bear market until the Dow Industrials find some bottom and the Dow Transports confirm the primary trend change back to the bullish side.

And I will tell you when that happens and not a moment sooner.

I'm pointing this out because I've grown a little bit weary of toiling in obscurity while outright frauds like Dennis Gartman get to bloviate on CNBC in stultified language how "we" erred on the bullish side, or how he's "long gold in yen terms," or other such nonsense. He is getting paid to tout garbage. I get nothing, not even faint praise, when I'm absolutely right, 100%.

OK, so maybe I'm having a little hissy fit here, but I'm not going to lower my voice, nor am I going to stop speaking my mind, making my calls and writing this daily blog. My reward is out there somewhere, I just hope I get some of it before I get to heaven.

As for today's action in the markets, it was the same old saw that I've been commenting upon in previous blogs: up at the open, then a long, slow decline into the red, a typical and obvious chart pattern that the mainstream media will not ever acknowledge because they and their Wall Street banker masters want you to continue contributing to their ponzi schemes, at your own peril.

Fund holders will be the eventual bag-holders of this bear market. They'll lose anywhere from 30 to 60% of their portfolio if they don't reallocate their investments out of growth stocks and ETFs and into something more sustainable, whatever that may be. Bonds are probably a good spot as yields are rising. Commodities may not be bad, depending on the asset mix. Cash is more than likely to be king. You can send me some by clicking here.

We are entering a period in which it is more important to preserve capital than risk it and hope for gains. Hope is not an investment strategy. Watching your magic fund sink month after month is not pleasant, and being a bag-holder while the smart money runs for the exits is not what any rational person would do.

As anyone can clearly see, after taking losses in February and March, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished with a gain of 50.81 points. That's not a gain, that is a rounding error, a pimple, a dot. It didn't even beat inflation. You lost money over time.

Get out, reallocate, or die.

Dow Jones Industrial Average April Scorecard:

Date	Close	Gain/Loss	Cum. G/L
4/2/18	23,644.19	-458.92	-458.92
4/3/18	24,033.36	+389.17	-69.75
4/4/18	24,264.30	+230.94	+161.19
4/5/18	24,505.22	+240.92	+402.11
4/6/18	23,932.76	-572.46	-170.35
4/9/18	23,979.10	+46.34	-134.01
4/10/18	24,407.86	+428.76	+294.66
4/11/18	24,189.45	-218.55	+76.11
4/12/18	24,483.05	+293.60	+369.71
4/13/18	24,360.14	-122.91	+247.80
4/16/18	24,573.04	+212.90	+460.70
4/17/18	24,786.63	+213.59	+674.29
4/18/18	24,748.07	-38.56	+635.73
4/19/18	24,664.89	-83.18	+552.55
4/20/18	24,462.94	-201.95	+350.60
4/23/18	24,448.69	-14.25	+336.35
4/24/18	24,024.13	-424.56	-88.21
4/25/18	24,083.83	+59.70	-28.51
4/26/18	24,322.34	+238.51	+210.00
4/27/18	24,311.19	-11.15	+198.85
4/30/18	24,163.15	-148.04	+50.81

At the Close, Monday, April 30, 2018:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 24,163.15, -148.04 (-0.61%)
NASDAQ: 7,066.27, -53.53 (-0.75%)
S&P 500: 2,648.05, -21.86 (-0.82%)
NYSE Composite: 12,515.39, -78.64 (-0.62%)