WEEKEND WRAP: r/wallstreetbets Reddit Group Escalates To Full Scale War On Hedge Funds, Short-Sellers, Buying Silver

Stocks suffered through their worst week since October, 2020, with the Dow losing more than 1000 points and all of the major averages dropping by 3.25% or more. The tech-laden NASDAQ and small caps on the NYSE Composite led the way lower. The NAZ fell 3.49%; the NYSE lopped off 3.71%.

Macro losses on the exchanges took a back seat to the internecine skirmishes between billionaire hedge fund managers and the rag-tag recruits from reddit.com group n/wallstreetbets as the mostly-millennial stock traders from the reddit group took the short-sellers to task over shares of GameStop, the beleaguered game retailer targeted by the hedge funds.

Essentially, what the wallstreetbets crowd did was target the most-shorted stocks by buying up shares of down-beaten GameStop (GME), and others, such as Nokia (NOK), Blackberry (BB), Bed Bath & Beyond (BBYB), AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC), and Koss Corp. (KOSS), sending shares soaring, squeezing the hedge fund shorts, costing them billions of dollars.

Hedge funds, which have extensive short positions in many equities, hoped to capitalize on the misfortunes of companies but failed to take into account retail market forces and the power of social media as the reddit group n/wallstreetbets devised a strategy of buying the losing stocks and holding, forcing the hedgies to cover their downside bets.

In effect, the hedge funds borrowed shares (at fees ranging from 30% to 50% of the share price) of the beaten-down stocks and sold them into the market at prices under the asking price, Their plan was to buy those shares back on the open market as the stock collapsed, return the borrowed shares, pocketing the difference. They also short stocks through put options, bets that a stock will trade lower over time with specific time limits (strike dates).

The reddit crowd, glibly calling themselves "retards" or just "tards," seized upon the opportunity to make massive profits and punish the billionaires at the same time just by buying shares of the targeted stocks. As members of the seven million strong group n/wallstreetbets executed their strategy, shares began to rise, fueled by increased volume from the retards, then accelerating as the hedge funds began to panic and cover their shorts at increasing losses.

Through Friday, the hedge funds have accumulated losses approaching $20 billion on Gamestop alone. For their part, the retail crowd is holding onto their gains, causing the shorts even more pain in the options market. The opposing forces created such a firestorm of volatility that both the puts and calls on some issues were both gaining at the same time, a logical impossibility, exposing the options market to failure.

Launching attacks on multiple fronts in different stocks, the reddit retail crew was not just beating the hedge funds, they were slaughtering them. If this was a football game, the score would be something along the lines of retards 144, hedge funds 0, and it's only the first quarter.

On Thursday, the redditeers got into the commodities game, sending silver futures up nearly 10% in a matter of minutes, taking gold, platinum, oil and many mining stocks, like First Majestic (AG) along for the ride. Using their buy and hold strategy and extending it to the most manipulated market on the planet - silver futures - the reddit gang began openly discussing taking down the COMEX futures market, short sellers and bullion banks, which are particularly at risk in silver, being heavily on the short side to suppress the price of what's known as "the money of gentlemen."

So far, plans include buying up shares of EFTs such as the iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and the Sprott Physical Silver Trust (PSIL), individual miner stocks and lately, purchasing physical silver from local coin shops, online retailers and eBay sellers. The latest move would more than likely be the most successful over time, as excessive physical demand would certainly cause supply shortages, prompting price gains. Longer term, if millions of people begin buying up small amounts of silver coins, bars, and jewelry, the demand spike would naturally result in a supply squeeze and either expose the COMEX as a fraud for failing to deliver physical metal on contract executions or boosting the futures price as spot prices sprint forward. Continued pressure from millions of silver buyers could break the futures market and the bullion banks and cause further chaos.

An article outlining the effects of what r/wallstreetbets is doing appeared on Thursday with a dire warning: Goldman Warns If the Short Squeeze Continues, The Entire Market Could Crash.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs are rightfully scared of the implications of what amounts to a peasant revolt in financial markets, traditionally the province of the rich and not-so-famous. With stocks bubbling out of control and the underclass betting on losers while the hedge funds are trying to savage them, the resulting carnage would cause liquidations earmarked for margin calls, fees, short-covering, and loss mitigation in the billionaire class. With money having to come from somewhere, the billions invested profitably in the Apples, Googles, and Facebooks of the world would depart, setting up a vicious liquidity trap complete with cascading losses throughout the markets.

So, in case you're thinking these millennial kids (mostly aged 20-45) are a passing fancy, you just failed economics 101, 201 and 401. This is a complete and fully-engaged revolt against money and those who control it and it's unlikely to end well for the people who've been manipulating every market on the planet for the past 35 years. It should not go without mention that Robinhood, the trading platform preferred by the redditeers, had to tap into its credit line through Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and has placed order limits of five shares down to one share of selected stocks, primarily the ones most targeted by the "retards." Many of the stocks on the restricted holdings list can be referenced here, though as yet unconfirmed, Robinhood has since trimmed the list and boosted the number of shares one can purchase and hold. Seems the online brokerage, Robinhood, has had scheduled meeting with the Sheriff of Nottingham, aka, the SEC.

Elsewhere, the mainstream (if we can call them that) cryptocurrencies became passé even as the world's richest person (today, anyhow), Elon Musk, admitted to buying some Bitcoin with a tweet saying, "It was inevitable." The news shook Bitcoin about 15% higher, but then fomented some selling. Bitcoin jumped to $38,570 on Friday morning, but has since slumped back into its near-term range between $30,000 and $35,000. Etherium caught a sympathetic bid on Friday, though it remains largely in a high range between $1200 and $1500.

Treasuries remained moribund with the short end of the yield curve flat at the zero bound from 1-month (0.07%) bills to 3-year notes (0.19%). Yield on the 10-year note gained one basis point, from 1.10% to 1.11%, while the 30-year gained two, rising from 1.85% to 1.87%. Interest rates in fixed income have remained so low for so long (generally since 2000) that the speculative bubbles in stocks, art, and real estate are approaching breaking points with the Fed powerless to do anything to settle markets.

Since January 6, the unofficial start of the Joe Biden administration, the 10-year has held in a tight range between 1.04 and 1.15%, while the 30-year has maintained even more intransigence, holding between 1.79 and 1.88%.

The Federal Reserve is stuck. Rising rates would murder stocks and they simply cannot lower them any more than what they are unless going into negative territory is seriously considered. Essentially, negative interest rates, a capstone for many European nations has been lauded as a failed experiment though there remains a record amount of more than $17 trillion with negative yields and those have typically terms of seven years or longer. Overall, 75% of the global bond market pays a yield of less than 1%, while only 10% pays a yield of more than 3%. Effectively, global real (inflation-adjusted) yields are almost all negative, upwards of 93% not keeping pace with inflation.

Already a failure on multiple fronts (the economy, education, race relations, civil rights, social justice, Covid, foreign affairs, trade policy, government corruption, and accountability) the Biden administration and Democrat party control of both chambers of congress is likely to oversee a global bond rout with their inflationist policies of spend and pretend, pushing yields higher by boosting the federal deficit and making it more expensive to service, the end result a ballooning federal debt which is rapidly approaching $28 trillion. At $27.86 trillion presently, $30 trillion is likely to be exceeded within months. By the end of the government's fiscal year (September 30), the federal debt could easily be upwards of $32 trillion, the run-rate of profligate spending and dollar dilution approaching half a trillion dollars a month.

These rank amateurs and posers, many from the destructive Obama administrations of 2008-2016, espouse ideas that press hard against beneficial public policy. Their insistence on greening, climate change, and identity politics stoke hatred and anger on both sides of the aisle, while their economic plans rival those of second-graders (with apologies to second-graders everywhere). Within months, Biden and his horde of deviant Democrats are likely to cause a massive stock market collapse, raging unemployment, and general strife. If Biden isn't impeached within the next six to eight months, the US - and with it the global - economy will become completely unglued.

Oil maintained above $50/barrel for WTI crude, checking out Friday at $52.20, just below the prior week's close ($52.27), though close to the recent high of $53.57. Since October 30, 2020, the price of oil has risen 45.9% form a low of $35.79. Any number of crosswinds are contributing to the price makeup. With holiday travel on the wane, prices at the pump would normally be falling, but colder weather and the re-opening of businesses in many states shuttered by the pandemic are mitigating that factor.

As the main street economy returns to some semblance of normalcy, expect gasoline prices to spike by Spring. The national average is currently at $2.43 a gallon, roughly the same as the pre-pandemic price from this date in 2020. With the Fed's printers working overtime counterfeiting fresh currency and the federal government hell-bent on doling out another $1400 to just about anyone making less than $75,000 a year (about 85% of the population), price inflation in food and energy are about as certain as water turning to ice below 32 degrees.

No state is selling unleaded regular for less than $2.00 a gallon, with Mississippi and Louisiana on the low end at $2.09 and $2.10, respectively, Hawaii ($3.26) and California ($3.41) the only states with average prices above $3.00. Nationwide, drivers could be looking at gas above $3.00 a gallon in pretty short order, especially if states continue lifting COVID-related restrictions. Consumers may be screaming for relief by Memorial Day.

WTI crude's last peak was October of 2018, when it topped off at $76.18 a barrel. While unlikely to hit that number anytime soon, a range of $60-68 a barrel is a very real short term possibility. While that number isn't exactly appealing to end-users, it would likely rally US frackers and shale unaffected by Joe Biden's executive order banning new leases on federal land. The main beneficiaries of Biden's boneheaded approach to energy are Russia and OPEC, as the United States will have to import more oil at higher prices.

Americans have to face up to the reality that the person sitting (or mostly sleeping) in the White House is illegitimate, as the Democrats conspired to steal the election from Donald Trump. Simply put, Biden should be thrown out of office, tried for his crimes and jailed as soon as possible. Just days into his term he's already tried - through executive orders - to reverse much of the good done by Trump. He's an ass, a thief, a liar, a crook, a seller of influence, and his policies are mostly opposed to the public good. Most people don't like him, don't accept him as their president, and will remain angry about the stolen 2020 election until he is removed.

Fittingly, in the face of last week's ramping of beaten down stocks and the fast foray into the silver space, silver far outpaced gold, rising swiftly as its more pricey counterpart suffered a slight decline.

Gold ended the week at $1847.76, down from the prior Friday's price of $1855.90 per ounce while silver, courtesy of the reddit crowd from r/wallstreetbets, caught a long-overdue bid Thursday and Friday, slingshotting from a low of $25.26 on Wednesday to close out the week at $27.71, a sharp, 9.7% move, a five-month high, with more upside straight ahead.

As the assault on silver shorts commenced over the weekend, premiums rose notably at delaers and online markets. Local coin shops and online merchants reported record volumes, many selling out of popular products, imposing shipping delays and quantity restrictions as demand soared.

Here are the most recent prices for popular gold and silver items sold on eBay (numismatics excluded, shipping - often free - included):

Item: Low / High / Average / Median
1 oz silver coin: 33.00 / 46.45 / 37.55 / 36.47
1 oz silver bar: 34.50 / 44.98 / 38.79 / 37.60
1 oz gold coin: 1,936.30 / 2,050.00 / 1,980.73 / 1,979.89
1 oz gold bar: 1,925.00 / 1,995.42 / 1,959.40 / 1,956.83

Weekly survey results from April 2020 to present can be found here.

At the Close, Friday, January 29, 2021:
Dow: 29,982.62, -620.74 (-2.03%)
NASDAQ: 13,070.69, -266.46 (-2.00%)
S&P 500: 3,714.24, -73.14 (-1.93%)
NYSE: 14,397.20, -272.32 (-1.86%)

For the Week:
Dow: -1014.36 (-3.27%)
NASDAQ: -472.37 (-3.49%)
S&P 500: -127.23 (-3.31%)
NYSE: -554.65 (-3.71%)

Wall Street Trench Warfare Pits Millennials Against Hedge Funds, Brokerages, the "System"

Publisher's Note: A few words about our friend, Mother Nature, whose angry side we witnessed firsthand Tuesday morning around 2:00 am when our mountain abode was shuddered by a massive lightning strike. Barely avoiding the main house, the multi-pronged assault did the most damage by rupturing a propane gas line which erupted into flame with a loud boom that awakened most of our neighbors, one of whom is a fireman who responded with miraculous speed.

The fire was quelled by quick-thinking responders who shut the gas off at the tank, limiting the damage to an eight-foot wooden gate on the fence line. Upon daybreak, we began to assess the electrical damage, which amounted to quite a bit, including the frying of the AT&T internet modem, Dish TV modem along with the wiring to the dish itself which took one of the strikes directly, the entirely of an expensive audio center, two ceiling fan motors, a refrigerator, a furnace circuit board, an internet extender unit, and a small number of lights.

Indeed, we were fortunate that the damage was so limited, the sudden clap of electrical force serving as a not-so-gentle reminder of how fragile and conductive is our modern way of living. After two days of various repair trucks and service people in and out, life returned mostly to normal late Thursday. The insurance company is soon to be writing a fairly large check.

File this post under "better late than never," homage to resilience and Yankee ingenuity.

Over the past few days, the investing community has been treated to the tragi-comedy of millennial RobinHooders and other miscreant day-trading types versus the mighty force of hedge fund short-sellers (Citadel, part owner of Melvin Capital, among others) over shares of GameStop (GME), the failing gaming retailer. With wealthy billionaire hedge fund operators looking to cash in on the woes of the firm, thousands of small retail investors, purportedly organizing on Reddit, took them to task, buying up shares of the ill-fated company and boosting the price, causing the short-side hedgies to cover, suffering billions of dollars in forced buying.

From mid-morning Tuesday to the close on Thursday, shares of GameStop were whipsawed every which way, starting in the high 80s to close Tuesday at 145, then opening Wednesday at 327, eventually reaching a peak of 468 early Thursday morning.

That's when - with losses into the $$ billions - the unthinkable happened. Apparently at the behest of the doomed hedge fund managers, Robinhood and other brokerages - including TD Ameritrade, Webull, Merrill Edge, and others - began limiting trading and options on GameStop and other companies (AMC, BB, BBBY, EXPR, GME, KOSS, NAKD, and NOK) targeted by the millennial horde to sell only or raising margin requirements as high as 300%, in some cases closing out positions without notice to clients. In a little over an hour, the share price on GME fell from 468 to 112, eventually bouncing back over 300, but finally closing out Thursday at 193.60.

The story does not end there, however. While the hedge funds were being bailed out by the brokerages, retail investors were claiming "foul," obviously annoyed over the ham-fisted approach to the perception of fairness in "open" markets. It appears that Wall Street trading houses will allow unlimited losses to small investors, but when it comes to whales like hedge funds, they'll willingly step in to staunch declines.

Such action obviously is not sitting well with the general public nor the damaged retail millennial crowd. At least one lawsuit has been filed and congressional dog-and-pony shows are upcoming. It's safely assumed that no Wall Street persona will suffer anything more than having to be publicly berated and forced to contribute to a number of election campaigns. Such is the technocratic justice that prevails.

In the meantime, the wealthy hedgies are now forewarned that their activities in the market are not going to be tolerated by the retail crowd which has served notice that they can and will organize in monetary assault. The hallowed canyons of Wall Street have become the site of open economic class warfare, a drama which is likely to end well for nobody. In so far as the recent action have amounted to minor initial skirmishes, escalation of this unique economic trench warfare is to be expected.

In pre-market trading, GME is up 154 points, to 348. This battle is far from over.

Robinhood and other brokerages have freed up trading in the affected companies, according to reports. Robinhood has tapped into its liquidity, borrowing from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

From the looks of things, there's likely to be more losers than winners in this battle.

---

Two days of an internet outage afforded the distinct displeasure of reading the stupid little book. COVID-19 The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret. If only to spare readers any wasted moments on what amounts to child-like writing (maybe fifth grade level) by supposed intellectuals who espouse to instruct world leaders and commoners alike how to prosper from the pandemic, this review will be sparingly brief.

The authors (shuddering at dignifying them thusly) take vague suppositions on various issues such as "climate change" (which is a foremost topic for them), governance, mental health, environmentalism and other worldly subjects and expand them into a tapestry of pandemic behaviors seen through a prism of time between January and June of 2020. Their focus on digitization, lockdowns (which they frighteningly refer to as confinement), control, and taking advantage of the situation is perversely anti-human and gravely mistaken.

Schwab and Malleret suggest, ad nauseum, that the advent of COVID-19 brought with it hopeful possibilities for governments, businesses, and individuals to rethink, retool, and reset their environment and practices. Nearly completely disregarding the medical missteps and personal devastation, the evidence and advice springs from the Rahm Emanuel principle of "...never let a crisis go to waste," which is in itself a sick, cynical world view. There's no concrete evidence or proposals offered. The whole 190 pages of boring, run-on text and 20 pages of footnotes includes a dizzying array of if (found on 73 pages), and, but (143 pages), could (85), might (44), may (89) propositions and no concrete solutions to anything.

While it's refreshing to realize through the reading that Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), is not some crazed Nazi holdout bent on world domination, but rather a fuzzy teddy bear without much purpose or brain power, the other side of the coin says this book should not be on anybody's reading list. In fact, it should never have been written. That's why there's no link HERE to the free PDF, as it might encourage some to engage. Forget it. Dustbin of history stuff, it is.

While at the literary latrine, it would be a shame not to leak just how painful it was to see and hear youth poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, recite her trite, mixed metaphorical nonsense, "The Hill We Climb" at the fake inaugural last week. While the poem itself offered a garbled message of hope and desperation, it was decidedly non-inclusive and unwelcome to large swaths of people, particularly white ones.

It's not OK to elevate black girls to high positions when they reference their color, slavery, and inflammatory lines such as:

We've seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated

... as Americanism without punctuation. It's gaslighting.

Basically, give it a break. Americans are truly tired of being reminded of how evil, insensitive, and racist we are.

Just for good measure, a reminder that "double-masking" is doubly stupid.

At the Close, Wednesday, January 27, 2021:
Dow: 30,303.17, -633.87 (-2.05%)
NASDAQ: 13,270.60, -355.47 (-2.61%)
S&P 500: 3,750.77, -98.85 (-2.57%)
NYSE: 14,487.73, -379.64 (-2.55%)

At the Close, Thursday, January 28, 2021:
Dow: 30,603.36, +300.19 (+0.99%)
NASDAQ: 13,337.16, +66.56 (+0.50%)
S&P 500: 3,787.38, +36.61 (+0.98%)
NYSE: 14,669.52, +181.79 (+1.25%)

World Economic Forum Opens on Virtual Platform

Publisher's Note: A lightning strike overnight has our electrical on emergency use only, so this is going to be brief. Apologies.

On Monday, the World Economic Forum opened "Virtual Davos" with a series of speeches and affirmations.

The World Economic Forum will convene the Special Annual Meeting 2021 in Singapore from 25-28 May. It will return to Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, for the Annual Meeting 2022. The Special Annual Meeting 2021 in Singapore will be the first global leadership event to address worldwide recovery from the pandemic.

If you want to follow the events - all online - at Virtual Davos this week, start with the Davos Agenda 2021.

At the Close, Monday, January 25, 2021:
Dow: 30,960.00, -36.98 (-0.12%)
NASDAQ: 13,635.99, +92.13 (+0.69%)
S&P 500: 3,855.36, +13.89 (+0.36%)
NYSE: 14,935.29, -16.55 (-0.11%)

WEEKEND WRAP: Biden Takes Oath; Stocks Pause, Bonds Flat; Earnings Season in Full Swing

On Wednesday, Joe Biden took the presidential oath of office, making him the 46th president of the United States. The inauguration went off without a hitch, which was to be expected, considering there were more than 25,000 National Guards on duty across the District of Columbia, protecting the president and assembled dignitaries from some supposed threat, which, since the whole narrative was complete fiction, never materialized.

Neither white supremacists, ANTIFA or BLM radicals or even Daughters of the Republic showed up for the event, which more resembled a bad "made for TV movie" than the usual pomp and circumstance associated with the peaceful transition of power. It was so bad, there were more people awaiting President Trump's arrival in Florida than there were at Joe Biden's inauguration.

Trump didn't attend the inauguration. He left hours beforehand, aboard Air Force One. According to verifiable sources, he took the nuclear codes with him. Biden doesn't have the nuclear codes, probably never will, and his members of his administration are barred from the Pentagon, also verified.

There are still, at this writing, some 7,000 National Guardsmen on duty in the nation's capitol, which is quizzical, since there was no threat of violence at the big event, and no intelligence to expect any. The fences encompassing the National Mall, White House, Capitol, and Supreme Court are still up. The desolate city looks more like a third world prison camp than the seat of national power.

What the new president did right away was sign away some executive orders, mostly designed to reverse EOs issued by President Trump. EOs don't carry the weight of law. Biden's signings are designed to set the country back four years, and, despite what he says about uniting the country, don't exactly exude that Kumbaya feeling.

In response, stocks, in the first two full trading days since the inauguration, took a left turn. See closing prices below:

Index: 1/20/2021 / 1/22/2021
Dow: 31,188.38 / 30,996.98
NASDAQ: 13,457.25 / 13,543.06
S&P 500: 3,851.85 / 3,841.47
NYSE: 15,097.28 / 14,951.84

Just guessing, but, other than the NASDAQ (which always goes up because of the Tech monopoly giants (the AMFAG stocks: AAPL, MSFT, FB, AMZN, GOOG), traders seem to be less than enthralled with the direction taken by the new administration. While presidents aren't usually responsible for Wall Street antics, there is something of a correlation between policy and prices. The Biden administration is off to a rocky start.

While change has come to the federal government, some things are out of their reach, and unlikely to change. Treasuries were flat, with the 10-year yielding 1.10%, just a single basis point below the close of the prior week. The 30-year ended the week unchanged, at 1.85%.

Likewise, the surpression of precious metal prices continued, though at a somewhat subdued pace. Gold gained, from $1,829.80 to $1,855.50 (+$25.70), though it was down slightly the two days following Biden's inauguration. Silver rose from $24.87 to $25.57, a gain of 70 cents per ounce.

Oil, which hit a nine-month high of $53.57 per barrel on January 14, closed out at $51.98 on Friday, the 22nd. Could relief at the pump be at hand? Unlikely. Democrat governors, from New York's Andrew Cuomo, to Illinois' J.B. Pritzker, are reopening their economies and weather will begin to warm in another month or so, though heating costs have been mild this winter. Oil's price could moderate for a time, but by summer, it's almost certain to be above current levels.

In the crypto space, Bitcoin continues to vacillate at a level about 20% below its recent high above $42,000. Bitcoin's price fell as low as $28,732 and is holding around $32,000 currently. Etherium, the second largest coin by market cap, dipped as low as $1,039.62, but has recovered above $1,300.

Below is the Money Daily exclusive weekly survey of commonly-sold items on eBay (numismatics excluded, shipping - often free - included):

Itam: Low / High / Average / Median
1 oz silver coin: 35.00 / 50.50 / 42.17 / 42.47
1 oz silver bar: 32.25 / 47.15 / 38.57 / 38.48
1 oz gold coin: 1,952.00 / 2,046.24 / 1,999.27 / 2,007.80
1 oz gold bar: 1,950.00 / 1,986.49 / 1,966.96 / 1,965.94

For historical price data go HERE.

Of interest looking ahead, the coming week is the heart of earnings season, as companies release 4th quarter 2020 and full year results. Among the companies reporting this week are some heavyweights, as shown below.

Monday: (before open) Kimberly-Clark (KMB); (after close) Xilinx (XLNX), Yamana Gold (AUY)

Tuesday: (before open) UBS AG (UBS), 3M (MMM), D.R. Horton (DHI), General Electric (GE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), American Express (AXP), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Verizon (VZ); (after close) Texas Instruments (TXN), Capital One (COF), Starbucks (SBUX), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Microsoft (MSFT)

Wednesday: (before open) Blackstone (BX), AT&T (T), Teledyne (TDY), General Dynamics (GD), Boeing (BA); (after close) Facebook (FB), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL), Teradyne (TER), Raymond James (RJF)

Thursday: (before open) Dow Chemical (DOW), Stanley Black & Decker (SWK), Tractor Supply Company (TSCO), PulteGroup (PHM), Southwest Airlines (LUV), McDonald's (MCD), Altria (MO), American Airlines (AAL), Sherwin-Williams (SHW), Alliance Data Systems (ADS), Nucor (NUE), Mastercard (MA); (after close) Celanese (CE), Visa (V), Beazer Homes (BZH), US Steel (X)

Friday: (before open) Weyerhaeuser (WY), Caterpillar (CAT), Eli Lilly (ELI), Honeywell (HON), Synchrony Financial (SYF), Chevron (CVX), Colgate-Palmolive (CL)

At the Close, Friday, January 22, 2021:
Dow: 30,996.98, -179.03 (-0.57%)
NASDAQ: 13,543.06, +12.15 (+0.09%)
S&P 500: 3,841.47, -11.60 (-0.30%)
NYSE: 14,951.84, -67.21 (-0.45%)

For the Week:
Dow: +182.72 (+0.59%)
NASDAQ: +544.56 (+4.19%)
S&P 500: +73.22 (+1.94%)
NYSE: +57.68 (+0.39%)

Radio Silence; Stocks Looking for Lower Open

Appearances can be misleading.

While the military occupation of the District of Columbia (DC) is now winding down, about 7,000 members of the National Guard will remain until the end of January, according to Air Force Maj. Matthew Murphy, a spokesman for the National Guard.

Fences around the Capitol, White House and National Mall are still up, even though the inauguration of Joe Biden is over with, having occurred on Wednesday, without incident.

Biden is busy signing executive orders, though a few constitutional experts express doubt that they will have any binding effect.

In any case, life goes on. Stocks continued to be soft on Thursday and are poised to open sharply to the downside Friday. Dow futures are off more than 200 points with just minutes to go before the opening bell.

Gotta run.

Enjoy the Show.

At the Close, Thursday, January 21, 2021:
Dow: 31,176.01, -12.37 (-0.04%)
NASDAQ: 13,530.92, +73.67 (+0.55%)
S&P 500: 3,853.07, +1.22 (+0.03%)
NYSE: 15,019.05, -78.23 (-0.52%)