What meltdown? You mean the drop in stock prices caused by fund managers taking their year-end profits? Except there have to BE profits to harvest of which there were none 2008-2016.
1
Mr Trump went on a secret mission to Iraq, leaving Washington and Twitter storms and.... "on Wednesday, when early reports of a strong holiday-shopping season helped lift the S&P 500 by nearly 5 percent, its best day since 2009. The Nasdaq added 5.8 percent, and the Dow Jones industrial average rose just under 5 percent. "
Trump derangement syndrome is alive & well.
Our country is ill right now. We are being led by a liar and a cheat. Waiting to learn how massively he stole from America and if he is a traitor. These issues affect the volatility of the market.
2
biggest ponzi scheme ever invented.
1
Heading should read "stocks bounce back for now till Donald J Trump tweets the next destructive stupid thing..." .
2
I doubt if an enraged past its prime bull is diverted much by the resident rodeo clown with an orange fright wig and a bulb nose that puts Pinocchio to shame.
Rodeo clowns are better at baiting bears than soothing bulls.
Yeah market indexes stuck its head out of the hole Trump dug but it's a yellow light overhead, not green.
The market is allergic to chaos. It's a bull ready to be put to pasture. For rich folks with money to burn it's a golden opportunity to buy low and wait however long for a resurgent bull that feeds on high profit cheap money.
Commercial banks that constitute the Federal System like borrowing at 1 percent to lend out as consumer credit that fleeces the not-rich with 15% to 30% interest on credit card debt, now an ominous multi-trillion debt overhang that combined with the similarly colossal $trillion+ student debt that prortends a surprise tsunami that will move fast and break things.
A market rally under looming storm clouds is akin to touts at a house of ill repute abandoned by the rich due to its STD rates and eager to sell their cat house privileges to suckers who ignore health warnings.
Share prices bounce back, suckers are enticed, rich investors accommodate by selling their defective inventory to those eager to join the party. When the lights come back on, the smart money's whole again and gone. Suckers will be missing their wallets and hoping there's another bailout.
It's not buyer beware. It's buyer despair.
6
Somebody finally told Trump:
“the problem is Not the Economy, Stupid. It’s the Stupid, Stupid”.
2
Fingers crossed, but I must point out that the New York Times' headline reporting how the markets behaved the day after the crash on October 29, 1929 read, "Stocks Mount In Strong All-Day Rally."
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/10/31/issue.html
4
The markets have finally come to the realization that Trump is a toxic and pathological character who is bad for business everywhere. One day's updraft does not make the market's future bright.
2
The Trump administration lies to the American people. Trump himself is running from justice. This is not a recipe for success.
2
Optics do not contribute to anyone's IRA or whatever plan you have.
Do the research, the new tax plan is not your friend, especially in a blue state.
Our president of optical delusion has spooked the markets with his threat to fire the Fed Chair, and his unstable babbling; he is a constant commercial for his own well being.
1
One day does not a recovery make.
2
The stock market may be like a cancer patient that went into a brief remission before having a relapse. Don't let this rebound fool you. Nothing more than a false sunrise.
1
Trump was out of town and off Twitter today. Maybe that should tell him something. But he’s tone deaf, so probably not
1
The market have finally come to the realization that Trump is a toxic and pathological character who is bad for business everywhere. One day's updraft does not make the market's future bright.
1
So you have this lovely gift shop being stocked with more and more lovely, expensive gifts to buy. And for two years this big dog named Donald has been running amok in the store. Every now and then Donald knocks over a display case. The owner of the store rushes in and takes the rest of the expensive stuff off the shelves and slaps Donald on the nose. Donald retreats to the corner and after the mess is cleaned up, the owner starts bringing the expensive items back out to the display cases to sell. Customers start shopping again and sales increase. Then Donald gets up from the corner because he is not getting petted by the customers in the store. And, whoops, there goes another display case. And the cycle repeats itself. Anyone with half a brain can figure out that all these disruptions are going to force the store to close. Or you take Donald and put him in a kennel outside. Open your eyes, America. Oh, right, he's making things so much better. Take out your 401K statement. After your tears have subsided, ask yourself who, exactly, is forcing him to run around the store knocking things over? Hillary? Obama? Keep telling yourself Donald will settle down and stop tipping over the display cases. And then look at the Dow under Obama. Oh, that's right, Obama ruined the country.
3
The market is reassured because the WH said that the Fed chairman’s position is “”100%” safe”? No kidding?
Another example of glass-half-empty coverage from this article: the Dow had a 5.8% rebound in one day but all this paper can say is that we're finishing off the year much worse than .... any other year. And of course, it's Trump's fault. Give me a break!
@Labete Let's stop for a moment and reflect. Shall we. Obama inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression. And where did it end up? Like 12,000 points higher WITH those higher taxes on wealth. Trump is up about 3,000 with a booming economy and all those tax cuts on wealth with a 2000 point loss this year. With all cylinders firing on the economy. Who is the guy running around adding weights to the economic recovery? You know the guy who can't keep his mouth shut. And if you think things are good now, wait until the sugar high from those tax cuts wear off. It's pretty much a given there will be a slow down. The question then will be will Trump add more uncertainty and make matters worse or rely on the experts to steer the ship correctly? My "gut" tells me the former. Fasten your economic seat belt. Your "break" is right around the corner.
1
I am always uneasy when people whose income depends upon the fortunes of the stock market present their opinions because prophecy means profit for them. In order for the average small investor to benefit from the markets, TIME is of the essence. If you think you need access to your stock money in less than 15 years, then be very cautious about playing in a financial industry where so much manipulation goes on for personal gain.
2
If Wall Street were a medical patient an EKG of its rapid up and down oscillations might be diagnosed as a heart attack. President Trump has given himself and the first two years of his presidency a grade of A+; Wall Street seems to be giving him a failing grade. When his policies fail or have disastrous consequences for others the President is quick to blame others. Today it is Jerome Powell; tomorrow it may be Steve Minuchin, etc. The president appears to be immune to self-evaluation or outside feedback. Conservative party leaders appear to lack the courage to assess the crisis the nation faces and to intervene. The recent shock waves of the stock market may be a paradoxical effort of Wall Street to get the president's attention and to speak to him in the only language he seems to understand - money. If Wall Street continues to plummet or behave erratically maybe those who have enabled the chaos in the White House will do something to bring stability, effective leadership and governance, and hope and kindness to the majority of Americans who yearn for such tranquility.
2
Discount stores did better than the high end ones this is another lie told by Wall Street. Plus judging by holiday sales is hardly a new thing.
Down 5%, Up 5%, Down 5%, Up 5% ... this is not a winning progression. You'll end up loosing in the long run every time.
Lessening volume of money (Fed's reversal of quantitative easing), rising interest rates (giving Fed needed room to lower them in future), gigantic budget deficits ahead (without infrastructure investment and from tax cuts for the already wealthy), trouble in the EU, China, Brazil and the rest of South America, and wars in the Middle East now in the hands of Russia, Syria, Turkey, and Iran .... what's to threaten our steady climb out of the recession? Lucky we have a steady hand at the helm of our ship of state ... arrrgh!
I'd take Obama's steady growth management any day over Trump's insane efforts to inflate and ignite bubbles throughout the world's economies - all to satisfy his ego rather than sound economics.
9
Gee, and if only Ronald Reagan and the Republicans (and some Democrats) were able to privatize Social Security, I would feel so much more secure. What could go wrong? Let the feral, err free, markets take care of everything. Wasn't it Marx who once said the biggest threat to capitalism are capitalist?
5
"White House officials insisted again that the president had no plans to fire Mr. Powell, news that reassured investors."
And business people and big investors actually believe such a statement from the White House? Amazing. What other such statement from the White House has been credible this year?
6
Every slot machine pays off once is a while, but on average, you still lose.
3
If the Fed chief was blamed by Trump for the stock market decline, shouldn't he be credited for the improved tally also?
7
yes, he should, definetely
1
Focusing only on Wall Street or just on Trump is tunnel vision that obscures the realities. None of these comments takes a global perspective, which is essential to understand what is going on, and where things are going. America is no longer the center of the economic world. The downward spiral is a worldwide phenomenon, abetted by increasing political instability everywhere. We are witnessing the inevitable outcome of a global economic expansion built on abnormally low interest rates, mountains of unsustainable debt, and central bank bailouts. This is now coming to an end, and it won't be pretty.
53
The economy is strong. The only reason stocks are so volatile is because of the uncertainty generated every day by Trump. He needs to leave well enough alone and get out of the business of trade wars, interfering with the Fed, and putting government workers out of their jobs.
47
@Mr. Adams
Take away his Twitter acct - it’s a national emergency.
34
I never believe anyone writing about the stock market going up or down and providing "reasons". However, in my humble opinion, I feel that "market" will slide even more. Whomever is causing the market to fall is aiding the 1%ers in picking up their company's stock "for a song" . So much for trump's tax reduction for the rich helping the economy at all.
37
@Majortrout Wait'll people file their taxes for 2018. They're going to discover that the "tax cut" only applied to a very few people. That the false bump of the lowered withholding was simply a ploy to get through election day (the bloodbath would've been worse). In April, when the piper shows up for his pay there's going to be a whole lot of very angry people. I only hope that anger hangs until 2020 and these people remember who set them up so well.
74
I was wondering what Trump'd do when his biggest boasting point — the strong economy — inevitably failed under his leadership. Now we know: he'll blame the Fed.
This is the nice part about casting oneself as an "outsider" in a "swamp." One can always tell one's base that one is subject to the forces of the shadowy "deep state" that won't listen to you — or worse, simply hates you for being an outsider.
And the GOP will continue defending Trump on this, even as he drives the economy and the country to ruin.
Why would they, you ask? Doesn't everyone suffer if the economy collapses? Not if you're rich, or in the pockets of the rich! Not if you know an economic crisis is a great opportunity to direct more hate towards your favorite bogeymen: those job-stealin' immigrants... and also allows you to say stuff like, "We simply can't afford entitlement programs anymore!"
And not if you're a narcissistic President who couldn't care less about the state of the country, and craves only power and attention.
That's right: We're being run by a party and a President who fundamentally *do not care* if the country falls apart. Their end game is not to make this country the best possible place for the most possible people. Their end game is to line their pocketbooks, consolidate their power, and/or boost their tremendous egos. Observe all Trump's actions, and the GOPs, through this lens, and what seems like a death spiral of lunacy makes perfect, perfect sense.
259
@RGT. Finally, someone who tells it like it is! A clear, succinct summation. Thank you, RGT.
32
@RGT
"Not if you know an economic crisis is a great opportunity to direct more hate towards your favorite bogeymen . . . "
And don't forget those horrible public employees. They and their outrageous benefits are just as bad as those illegal immigrants. Ask Scott Walker.
39
@RGT
the one criticism I have with your comment is that it brings up this "base" group. This small but very important set of people that we seem to know all about, now. Why didn't we know about these very critical set of people and their blind devotion before the election?
There are so many professionals in this world. And as far as I can tell they lick their fingers before checking the direction of the wind. This is one of the main reason why I will remain an index type investor.
6
The Plunge Protection Team came to the rescue as this ten year rigged market continues. "Painting the Tape" has become standard practice as the central bank hasn't allowed a 20% decline in the S&P in 10 years. Price discovery is dead. Capitalism is dead. We have a centrally planned economy being run out of the Eccles building that supports the top 5% of the population who owns 90% of common stock. Welfare for the rich is alive and well.
4
I think that, due to PROOF that Donald has raised the DOW by over 1,000 points in one day, an HISTORIC record, that he should be made president for LIFE. [I'm not accustomed to using all capital letters, but I tried to keep this comment to TWEET length.]
@C.L.S. Will you also give Donald credit for a DOW that has fallen from 24824 in January to 22878 now?
Love ya!
1
The world economy is $80 Trillion dollars. The days of America sneezing and the rest of the world catches a cold are over.
The market decided to offer a deaf ear to Donald Trump's presidential tweets and pay more attention to the fundamentals of the economy. Result: DJIA jumped 4.98 percent above Monday's closing.
Lesson: Let DJT tweet in the wilderness.
A recurring theme in the News and in public discourse recently is the notion that the stock market no longer matters to ordinary people, because only the megawealthy are participants. A similar line of thought suggests that the stock market has no bearing on the actual strength or weakness of the economy as a whole. Let's also take into account the prospect that the overall strength of the economy doesn't matter to regular people, because all wealth of consequence is now concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy individuals and all "trickle down" mechanisms have been effectively dismantled. Therefore, with exceptions made for the top 0.01% of the world's population, we can conclude that the market doesn't matter, the economy doesn't matter, and the relationship between the market and the economy doesn't matter. There seems to be a shadow economy at work that doesn't get tracked or reported on in the news, and the shadow economy happens to be the one that governs nearly all of our lives.
6
@Ian Carvin
More than half of Americans either own stocks or funds that own stocks. Anyone with a 401k or pensions or IRAs is probably invested somewhat in the stock market.
2
The stock market goes down, it goes up, and it doesn’t bother me.....because I’m not part of the investor class (the only people that any of this really affects, anyway).
2
@KW Because most employees have pensions or 401ks, their retirement funds are in the market. Are they included in your definition of the investor class?
9
@Jana Weldon: according to U.S. Census data and independent organizations like the PEW charitable trust who analyze it, LESS THAN HALF of non-governmental workers in the U.S. participate in any sort of employer-sponsored retirement plan like pensions or 401(k)s. Many private-sector employers don’t even offer 401(k)s, let alone pensions. And it’s getting worse—only a third of Millenials participate in an employment-sponsored retirement plan.
That said, most people who are in employer-sponsored retirement plans are never going to get rich that way. They are usually not the people referred to when someone says “investor class”, which implies a group of people that can and do get wealthy/wealthier purely by investing discretionary funds in the stock market.
3
@J. Fernandez
Last I checked sometime this year it was about 53% of Americans who do have some kind of stake in the stock market, either via 401k, IRA, pensions, etc. Dunno why you pulled gov't workers as if they're not people?
Some investigation might turn up some more insider trading, as the mega wealthy sold when it as high, then, after skimming off others money, they waited, then, with some of that profit, they again bought at a low price . . . No rules in this greed game!
15
I'm on holiday and able to follow business news channels closer than normal in past 7 days, and my verdict is most of CNBC and Bloomberg "journalists" and "analysts" would be accused of professional malpractice if held to the standards of most accountable professions. Remarkablw how such contradictory claptrap gets broadcast to the unsuspecting. CNBC in particular does more harm than good to their audience. It is not acceptable for journalists to be cheerleaders... their duty is to provide credible analysis.
12
JL
Agreed! I hardly watch them anymore. Notice they no longer take comments on their stories anymore. 25% of the stories are not even business stories
1
Maybe because Trump left the country? Just sayin'.
18
Maybe it would continue to get better if he didn't come back. Just a thought.
1
Trump did it.
1
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel jerked around and manipulated?
Triple-digit market swings, in either direction, in a day are weird enough.
A thousand points? C'mon.
Word is this is 'herd trading' by computers / algorithms. In other terms, the dreaded 'high frequency' nanosecond fast trades that mere mortals cannot be part of, but get sucked into the results of same simply by proximity to the market.
A lot of this was part of the '08, '09, '10 period.
It all just ticks me off.
16
I remember the wild swings the market had between September and December of 2008. When Bear Sterns when under, as John McCain state the "fundamentals of the economy are strong" during a campaign speech. CNN had him in split screen, showing the DJIA dropping 777 points.
After that day, the market bounced back and froth, before it started its decline DIJA from 9000 to 7450 (mid 2009) or about a 22% drop. This DIJA, since October has declined from 22628 to 21792 or a 19% drop.
In 2008, we were in a recession fro nearly year. The economy is much stringer than 10 years ago. Much of what the markets have reacted to since September (its peak), has been because of Trump's poor understanding of economic, an incompetent Secretary of the Treasure, an inept Secretary of State, tariffs, broken trade treaties, and Trump's ever increasing criminal scandal (tax evasion, abuse of campaign finance laws, collusion with Russia).
Today's "bounce back" is most welcomed. However, how long can self-inflicted uncertainty, created by the Trump Administration, can the market take, before it goes into a free fall?
The only saving grace, in all of this, is that we are not in a recession, and, at least have been told, there are no "too big to fail" banks; failing.
17
Dead cat bounce?
12
I wonder who the winners and who the losers were.
1
Oh volatility....fall coming.
1
The proverbial dead cat bounce.....
3
Why did the NYT not mention the S&P was up 1,000 points?
2
@rick baldwin
It was the DIJA which increased 1086 points Teh NASDAQ was up 361 points. The S&P was up 116 points today. They all came close to erasing loses from this pastFriday and Monday.
4
Want to relax about stock market gyrations? Nissan Taleb suggests in his book THE BLACK SWAN: The Impact of the Highly Improbable - “be as hyperconservative and hyperaggressive as you can be instead of being mildly aggressive or conservative. Instead of putting your money in “medium risk” investments (how do you know it is medium risk? By listening to 'experts'?), you need to put a portion, say 85 to 90 percent, in extremely safe instruments, like Treasury bills – as safe a class of instruments as you can find on this planet. The remaining 10 to 15 percent you put in extremely speculative bets, as leveraged as possible (like options), preferably venture capital (Angel) portfolios. That way you do not depend on errors of risk management, no Black Swan can hurt you at all, beyond your “floor,” the next egg that you have in maximally safe investments. Or, equivalently, you have a speculative portfolio and insure it (if possible) against losses of more than say, 15 percent. You are “clipping” your incomputable risk, the one that is harmful to you. Instead of having medium risk, you have high risk on one side and no risk on the other.”
Why not create a much improved economy? See The Second Income Plan suggested by the late Louis Kelso, inventor of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan - ESOP - used by 11,000 companies.
Second Incomes will reduce inequality. And combine them with a Universal Basic Income.
No net cost to the treasury!
See: SECOND INCOMES at aesopinstitute.org
3
Giving up on perpetual motion, eh?
The financial markets are a craps table now. Algorithms trigger wild volatility, insiders go long or short, and we peons with our 401Ks and IRAs and savings accounts stand by helplessly wondering what to do. This is what happens when the .01% and those beholden to them (like the entire GOP) rule the world with no morality other than to serve their own wealth, power and self-interest.
My bet is the whole house of cards will come tumbling down in 2019, the rich will still be rich if not richer, and the despair and anger among the bottom 90% will cause more chaos and catastrophe.
Hope I’m wrong.
12
"White House officials insisted again that the president had no plans to fire Mr. Powell, news that reassured investors." I wonder - even when the President speaks for the President it doesn't mean much for very long. In any case, I thought that no matter how much the President at any time might want to fire Mr. Powell, he couldn't unless he gave himself the power to rule by decree.
1
Your chart is wrong.
Shows S&P closing below 2400.
Closed at 2467.
The high of the day.
PS- this is Bear bounce.
Won't last. 10 years of Bull and now we'll be flat or down for a while.
If Trump ruins everyone's confidence and his crazy party makes any more $trillion deficit tax laws we'll all be living in our cars at some point.
That's what dictators do to societies.
They destroy them.
8
„Worst day since” follows “best day since” follows... combined with absurd post-rationalizing explanations like a) “The Fed” “Global unrest” and b) “healthy shopping season”
- seriously?
Why not “new season of Game of thrones” or “new album by Lady Gaga?”
The stock market is beyond gambling and even far beyond any ratio.
3
What’s wrong with the economy?
Nothing - but the brutal impact of reality.
Toddler Trump has hit the economy with: infinite ignorance, illiteracy, tariffs, lies, abject rejection of reality in favor of fantasy, vast disruption of the world order, broken treaties and alliances, more lies and fantasies, more rejection of reality... all to have his personal whims and wacky beliefs inserted where the sober advice of experts belongs.
Did I mention the lies, the corruption, the obstruction, the constant disregard of Law and the Constitution, the almost certain Treason... and the Lies, Lies, Lies?
The economy runs on data and the cold world of reality. It’s finally realizing that we are trapped on a plane with a raging, untrained child as pilot, who has locked out the real experts, turned off the radio... and who is hauling the yoke back and forth, howling that he’s Charles Lindbergh, the greatest pilot in the world!
Who wouldn’t be terrorized out of their minds? Lord knows I certainly am!
13
Wasn't John Kelly's job 100% safe as well?
3
A small dump by a big company and a few hundred thousand “weaker” hands could send the market to a new bottom. Or not. If anyone says different get a new broker.
Can someone point out that Powell doesn’t set rates himself? There is a board that votes. Powell is not a one-man dictator. Changing Powell would almost certainly change nothing. It’s not that I expect trump to have any idea how the Fed works, but it could be useful if we didn’t just play along with his lazy and moronic characterization of what’s going on.
7
If we throttle Chinese theft and military adventures, Mexican. central+ invasion, and Russian expansion we might see the turnaround. If the FED. stops taking what it gave Obama to stimulate his economic middle class attack, corporate pandering and regulation disgrace and tragedy, it will soar tomorrow.
That is one big dead cat bounce!
1
Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Need the market to go up more? Get P45 out of our continent like today.
1
This is likely a "dead cat" rally (as a dead cat, when dropped from even a few feet up will bounce a little) and tomorrow could see the Dow take another 500 point bath.
Tomorrow's bet: The 'don't come.'
Can I go to the Trump Plaza or the Taj and get some action? Oh, wait, they're bankrupt and out of business? Too bad.
4
This is a great sign, Mr. President!!! You CAN do something right. Leave the country and the market goes up over a 1,000 points!!!
Just think of what could happen if you left permanently...
7
Everything in the US is chaotic, why not the stock market?
2
Hmm. Trump leaves the country, and the markets go up by nearly 1,000 points.
1
Trump stopped tweeting and stocks went up. Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere.
1
How about that, the market 'decided' to come back from the brink (whatever that means) in spite of big- mouth Trump interfering in the needed Fed independence...so it can function as designed. Also surprised at Trump's incursion in Irak's territory, no doubt another maneuver to distract us from his legal troubles at home. But did he have to close government for that (and the darn 'wall', his most prized demagoguery after his hysteric Birtherism)?
1
So, assuming I had the funds (which I don't, of course), I could have bought 100 units of S&P Index at $2300 ($230k) during the death-throes of Monday afternoon, 1224, and then re-sold them at $2400 ($240k) on the giddy skyrocket of Wednesday afternoon, 1226, and in the process netted $10,000 ! A 4.35% profit (less all the stuff, of course) -- but not bad for two day's work with a holiday betwixt!
What mere mortal has such prescience, though? However, only advice I heard from the pundits on Monday 1224 was : ' don't be too hasty to bottom-buy -- we have not reached the true low yet '
Ladies and gents, place your bets!
3
The single, largest one-day gain in the history of the Dow. All credit goes to Donald Trump and his leadership!
1
You know that surge in the engine you hear right before you run out of gas? That is Wall Street. Not only are we going to run out of gas, this market is gonna throw a rod. We americans will be looking over a barren landscape a la Mel Gibson in road warrior, aimless and looking for fuel.
3
Somehow, Donald Trump will take credit for this. He is just that out of touch with reality.
1
@Livin the Dream So when the market tanks its Trump's fault and when it booms it's all thanks to Obama, right? Can't have it both ways.
So Trump secretly leaves the country, then, when it is revealed, the stock market reverses course and skyrockets...
Imagine the state of the economy WITHOUT Trump!
I don't know anyone who is not a billionaire who continues to support this fraud... Anyone with an IQ over 90, that is...
3
Trump says it's a great time to buy stocks. Why would I take financial advice from someone with his record of business failure? Why would I take advice from individual 1 who lies daily and associates with felons? The actions of Trump and Steve M begin to feel like market manipulation. Wild volatility does not build my faith in anything. Yes the markets will go up and down but that should be based on earnings and factual government economic reports. Investors should not be held hostage by the incompetent. Loose lips sink markets. The last 2 days of trading are the embodiment of a chaotic administration. Shame on them! I would proceed with extreme caution.
1
Never mind government workers don’t even get a paycheck. Think they’re cheering the stock market?
2
So how much did Trumps and Associates make in Poor Donald's latest market manipulations?
Or has he had the SEC furloughed with his Trump Shutdown so it no longer matters?
2
Outlaw short selling. It doesn't prevent bubbles. It's become its own speculative mode, and, as such is toxic. By all means, sell stocks to capture gains and protect oneself against downside. Just no short selling. The very existence of shorting shows that trading stocks is not a serious enterprise. It's just gambling. The argument that shorting prevents bubbles is a cousin of the argument that the existence of nukes prevents military aggression.
4
So much for the third-eye theory of market movement, that left alone, the markets will gravitate to the good. Instead, the billionaires and the corporate plutocrats, always in concert with government, are manipulating the markets to fill their pockets. They just will never grasp they can’t take it with them. There is no good news here. Everybody is back to square 1.
3
does the " official" who said not to worry have a direct communication pipeline to trump? Or, just acting officious while his boss is away?
1
@v
If Trump said his job is 100% safe that’s the kiss of death.
He’s just keeping the guy off balance and attempting to keep him and us on an emotional rollercoaster.
Standard Malignant Narcissist behaviour.
It’s how Malignant Narcissists control people.
Keep their heads in an emotional and factual whirl and overload, so:
1. so you can’t think straight
2. So you can’t think logically,
3. so you can’t see the con,
4. so you cede power and personal control to the Malignant Narcissist.
Trump’s doing this in part as a smokescreen -
1. so you won’t see his criminality.
2. so you won’t see his amorality not immorality, amorality - he has no concept of morality,
3. so you won’t see his incompetence,
4. so you won’t see his ignorance
5. so you won’t see facts, truth and reality.
6. so you won’t see his policies are causing death and destruction
1
Trump leaves the country, and the stock market bounces back.
He did not take responsibility for the fall. Watch him take credit for the rebound.
20
@J. Allison Rose That was my thought exactly. Maybe he should stay over there.
7
It’s a little funny, as we all know, about investment analysis. We are in trump fascism, so we have to factor that in:
“...as did efforts from the White House to ease up on criticism of the Federal Reserve.”
But if analysts *knew* of the good economy, as most, indeed, all, of us, did:
“‘Fundamentally you’ve got good growth here in the States, you have reasonable growth overseas, you’re going to have record earnings in 2019 and possibly in 2020 as well, you’ve got low inflation,’ said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.”
then why did the markets drop precipitously to begin with? This shows the ineptitude in market analysis of which we all are aware.
One definitely correct analytical result: We are on the trump roller coaster.
13
Market prices are way ahead of themselves. From through to peak, the S&P 500 more than quadrupled in 9 1/2 years. That is unsustainable. Equity prices historically double every 8-9 years. Mean reversion is an immutable law. That is more relevant than whether the Fed normalizes interest rates, trade wars, etc
1
@Mark Solomon: Interesing post. But do remember Henry Kaufman’s comment (heh, not on Twitter) that dropped the markets precipitously in 1987. Of course, that is the forgotten crash.
My post was that fundamentals are strong, but somehow investors got skittish. Well, they made some money today (hopefully). Just ride the trump roller coaster.
There is mean reversion, but there are causes to mean reversion. Statisticians do not deal with that. Economists do.
Why did stocks drop in 1987? Why did they drop in 2015? Sometimes they just fall and it’s a good thing. Clears out the silly people here - glad to take your shares from you at lower prices.
1
The only people making money in this market are the brokers. And they are cleaning up.
12
Stocks were overvalued last year, last month, yesterday, this morning, tonight, and will be tomorrow. What we are watching is speculators moving in and out based on whims, tweets, self serving commentary, last quarter's profits, and the promise of continued easy money. Is any of this real anymore?? P/E ratios are grandiose. Today's gains could be wiped out by New Years, causing more headlines. By any rational analysis, there is no basis for any of these valuations. So put your money in cash.
11
@Rick Morris
short spike.
Holiday sales growth was more than 5% year over year - best growth in years. Insider buying is at its highest level in nearly a decade. Confident consumers and executives are always Trump’s fault.
3
In the Trump Administration, "100% certainty" means exactly 0% certainty. And everyone knows it.
7
@Chicago Guy: exactly. Trump is 100% certainty of having uncertainty.
5
My last comment on the market was that a rebound would not surprise me. Three agreed Hundreds insisted that the crash was irreversible. When it comes to the markets, common wisdom tends to be wrong because people assume what happened yesterday will happen again today.
3
@michjas: right, but, if it happened yesterday, then there is an increased probability of its happening today. But it’s Bayesian. We have to factor in trump’s latest nonsensical proclamations.
6
A very correct description of recency bias.
1
The market reacts to every rumor and fear, this is just more volatility due to the uncertainty and unpredictability of future corporate profits, political situation, and worldwide economy. There is nothing in the fundamentals right now to point to a further reversal, nor is there any substantial reason for the market to rebound to 28,000 tomorrow. But any investor hoping for a quiet market, not blown about by every new tweet, is going to be disappointed.
8
I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole.
Looks like a whole lot of people thought they were buying at bargain prices. End of the day, everything above 20 or 21,000 is probably wishful thinking.
5
Even with the recent Fed increases the strong economy is still running on historically easy money. This is not something that gives me a great deal of comfort.
16
Just a different way to redistribute the wealth, so much better than taxes or a defined benefit plan.
Have faith.
1
I view Russia's promise to raise, not "Regulate" oil prices as an attack on our economy, a coup de grace at a time when our finance industry was in turmoil. Heed my words. It was an attack on us.
5
As always, humans are a self limiting, self defeating species. The investors raised the price of the roots of the economy, Oil, that will inhibit growth. The fast buck stops the economy.
7
The press and responsible journalists need to keep reminding people that there is a big difference between the stock market and the economy. The Fed has no obligation to keep stock prices high. Their primary obligation is to use their tools to keep employment high and inflation under control.
People worried about bear markets destroying their savings available for retirement should mobilize to make Social Security -- as a defined benefit program -- strong. As a nation, we need retirees to have secure incomes, not volatile portfolios.
33
@benjamin ben-baruch
As a nation, we need our workers to have decent wages so they can care for themselves, raise their families, and pay their taxes. THAT will fix social security.
7
Bargain hunters, speculators and machines playing the spread, working in concert to produce an upswing. Will swinging 5% or more on a daily basis become the norm for this over-priced market? Are we headed for 30,000+ or 20,000-? Better put on your neck braces. Don't want to crush a vertebra.
11
It's all about the tax cuts and the corporations taking all the money for themselves.
9
The stock market seems to have adopted our politics running hot one day and cold the next. Today it made great gains. Tomorrow it will lose them. Today Trump loves Powell. Tomorrow he may fire him. We are governed by wishes and spins of the wheel.
24
I just wish the left can make up their minds. Market and economy soar for 3/4's of the year and it's all because of "Obama policies", markets begin to fall all of a sudden it's instantly a "Trump economy". Now when it rebounds they will go back to saying it's all Obama. Exactly at on what date does everything going forward become Trump and no longer Obama?
3
All of this mess is definitely Trump's.
1
I wish Trump followers could make up their minds. When the stock market goes up, it’s all because of Trump, but when it tanks, it’s always someone else’s fault, right?
3
When he leaves office.
I live in the mountains of North Georgia. We have such a depressed economy here. There are few jobs to be had. And even fewer companies interested in locating here. I can't see that those with the wealth really care.
23
@John
There are depressed economies across America, and have been for some time...and I agree - those with the wealth, while happy to tout "low unemployment", truly don't care. We need politicians who consider such concepts as the "common good", instead of kowtowing to corporations and the 1%.
5
Amazing.
Trump leaves the country for one day and the market responds accordingly!
46
The higher the bounce, the deader the cat!
Happy New Year!
19
Well, I left Neil Irwin a comment last weekend, and I said that Wednesday was going to be a Santa Claus day, that bulls eat bears for breakfast!
Neil, I hope you were paying attention!
Not that I'm a market timer myself, I'm too old for that casino; but really, this market is getting old too. Look at the trend line since 2008, and you'll see that the past twelve months have been markets treading water, with enough well spaced ups and downs to keep the hedge funds afloat.
Why did the long bull run suddenly hit a ceiling around 25K DJIA? What is it that the big investors and sovereign funds know that you don't?
Secular stagnation is a question -- not the answer to the question.
12
Hmmmm the Trumps leave town, FAR away and NOT to play golf: Market goes up 1000+ points....Sadly a) we need 100 more days like this and b) President Mystery Bonespurs only created temporary diversion #257 today. This trip is nothing more than that, like every other disingenuous act of his.
16
The volatility of the stock market is obviously due to the volatility of the American president. Now that the ruling class has seen that it risks losing millions of dollars because of the buffoon in the White House, his days are surely numbered.
17
Machines go into wild oscillation right before failure. So do markets.
Until we return to sanity in the Oval Office, cash is king.
22
It would be great if the The Times paid as much attention to wages as it does to the stock market. According to a recent ThirdWay report, only 38 percent of American jobs pay enough to support a middle class lifestyle.
https://www.thirdway.org/report/the-opportunity-index-ranking-opportunity-in-metropolitan-america
Does the stock market ever take this metric into account? I suppose the money guys abhor higher wages, despite the fact that they lead to a better economy for more people.
17
@WRosenthal: I doubt even those numbers reflect reality as where the very few higher paying jobs are the cost of living is commensurately higher: the numbers would be more meaningful if they were locally and not nationally averaged, I see very few signs of a remaining middle class as gauged by what we considered middle class in the golden age of the middle class, the fifties: a dependable, livable salary and job security, often with benefits and a pension in your future(hard to believe today but retail salespeople at Sears got retirement packages, now retail salespeople are disposable, in particular to vulture capitalists like Schwartzman, Kravitz, Icahn, Ackerman and their ilk seeking “efficiencies” and using debt to bulk up their payoffs), homeownership for a family of four on one salary, a little money in the bank, very little debt, infrastructure and parks in good repair and free, gas cheap, college available to basically everyone, ditto medical and dental care before $25k braces and million dollar hospital bills: the loss of the gold standard, Milton Friedman economics, Greenspan’s dictum” we cannot give them raises but we can give them credit” which has defined the ability to have a middle class lifestyle since the seventies onward, renting it rather than owning it, one way or the other the banks make out the rest of us, not so much. When most people can’t come up with $400.00 in an emergency I remain unconvinced there is any longer a “middle class”.
14
Ted-the 1950s and part of the 1960s was part of a one off event. WWII had eviscerated most of the world. There was one economic power left standing. We rebuilt Europe and Japan and we benefited from those efforts. We developed a global economy that has, on balance, served the world well. And in doing so, we created competition where none existed. For the most part, we haven’t fallen behind. The world has caught up. That’s why you won’t see the ‘50s again
6
@Mark Solomon: I completely agree Mark, globalization has indeed done a great deal for many developing nations, unfortunately my grandsons live in America not in developing nations and I feel many in my generation sold them out, after all, let’s be frank, we didn’t rebuild Japan and Germany out of generosity we did it because we remember what happened after WWI when we allowed Germans to go hungry, so rebuilding Japan and Germany was a good thing and they play on the same level or better than our own workers so that really hasn’t been a problem, actually when the Toyodas took over the plant in Fremont they were better employers than G.M., The Higashis’ didn’t live the high life like an American CEO and wife though. When we sent jobs to China though, we destroyed much of America’s manufacturing and our middle class we did it out of greed, making billionaires out of tie salesmen like Ralph Lauren, Workers be damned. I’m not convinced that turning inward won’t benefit Americans in the long run, business wise supply chains may be interrupted and consumers will pay more for all the junk they have been convinced they need, but jobs will come back and spending trillions on rebuilding America rather than fighting other people’s wars or creating problems in other people’s countries to benefit multinationals resulting in unneeded immigration would certainly be a good start to at least try to regain ground for the middle class, I assure you the alternative will be much worse.
4
Yea for my 401K! Now let's see who does profit taking tomorrow.
6
@Brookhawk
Your 401K is not your until you retired.
1
Never ever have I understood the relation between these numbers and real live. I always think that these numbers only refect the amount of greediness of certain people. When they are rewarded, they have stolen the money from normal people, don't you think?
9
I understand Trump has not tweeted in the last few hours . That may have something to do with today`s rally .
7
Would it not be fairer to Trump for the headline to this article to read “ Dow Jones up more than 1000 points”. It has never happened before. An historic one day bounce.
2
@Milton Lewis
My thought too.
@Milton Lewis
It was the largest *point* gain ever; but we have to remember that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen enormously over the years. The base for that gain, the previous day's closing figure, was 21,792, not comparable to 10,000 or 5,000 or 1,000.
The *per cent* gain is still very large, but not something that has never happened before.
I do think your comment ends with valuable food for thought: the word "bounce".
The market starts the day heading lower.
News breaks that Trump left the country and the Dow rockets to close up 1000.
What more do you need to know?
12
I am so glad that everything is all okay now.
8
Will Trump praise the Fed for today's stock performance?
7
If Americans--especially DEMOCRATS--they would build a WALL around Washington to keep TRUMP OUT..
Build it fast.
10
This is of course a small story, since it doesn't fit the narrative.
2
Pretty revealing and very, very disappointing that even here, even now - 12/26/2018 - even long, long after everyone who ever knew anything about the stock market learned that the White House (regardless of occupant) has absolutely no effect whatsoever on the daily buying and selling of publicly traded stocks on Wall Street.
I wonder why some media still waste the public's time trying to rattle the under-educated into thinking so-and-so has inflicted this-and-that on the market, thus achieving some sort of desired negative impact.
Why bother?
3
The stock market is one of THE worst inventions. It's utterly unfair that people who are essentially gamblers are allowed to threaten the economy for the rest of us.
7
@Joseph
The only stocks a private investor should own are large cap dividend giving ones.
That’s ludicrous. People who have taken long term positions in a stock and treat themselves as part owners of an enterprise have built significant wealth for themselves
Look how jolly investors get when trump leaves the country.
4
Weird. It's like Trump leaves the country and everything's great again. Hey. Maybe that's the secret to making America great again. Quick! Somebody close ALL the borders!
2
The immediate resignation of this woefully inadequate carnival barker will be the best antidote to what ails our country and the international community. We’ve been exposed to the equivalent of two decades of incompetence and ignorance in two years. Let’s us pray for the expedited departure of the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by the courts or the ballot box.
8
Has anyone checked the stock portfolios of trump, his kids and his friends? Did anyone start shorting stocks not too long ago and maybe do some serious buying last Friday?
1
When a child is subjected to a continuing chorus of negativity, told to be afraid, told that an unexpected boogie man is under your bed, it is rather predictable that when someone claps their hands and says: Boo! the child reacts with fear. No matter if the lights are on, the room is warm, and there is soft music in the background, Boo! gets its intended reaction. Today's drumbeat, the one of constant din emanating from major news sources, talking heads, talk show hosts or late night comedians...whomever, the news is always...be afraid. Even though the economic environment is full of good news, employers are still looking for employees; companies are making money; unemployment for the usually last to be hired is at historical lows; even with lots more good news, the drumbeat is...be afraid. The coastal elites and their noisemakers continue the cacophony of negativity because, in reality...they are afraid. Yet, they have the microphone to drown out news contrary to their viewpoint. The coastal elites and their media, from WaPo, NYT, Boston Globe on the Eastern coast to the LATimes, SF Chronicle, Seattle Times, etc on the West coast, are afraid that their narrative, their Editorial Narrative stands out as being wrong and contrary to the reality that many others can see. So, it is not surprising that organizations, geographically within the confines of such rich sources of bad news like Wall Street behave as frightened children as the Elite media said: Boo!
2
@RiHo08
Great post.
Just fantasizing.... image how much higher the market would be if Trump had never been elected. Wow. No trade wars, no presidential instabilities, just solid, slow growth.
7
It appears that the word has come down from the "big boys" that it's time to stop the stock slide and let the "small fry" back in the market so we can '"fleece them again"!
8
@lftash
The"big boys" toy with the little guys.
All on a rare day Donald Trump chooses to travel abroad. Perhaps he should stay in Iraq....
1
What, no tweets from DT taking credit for this?
2
Trump was out of the country.
Trump leaves the country and we a massive "relief rally."
Stay away for the good of the nation.
Give us a break "Dirty Don."
2
For those who are about to retire at the end of the year, I am glad that they will at least recoup some of their losses on their 401K's. I have a friend who will retire in a couple of year who lost a whole year's salary because of this fiasco.
We are always just a Tweet away from Trump having another disastrous effect on the markets, or just a stupid move away from Mnuchin throwing more turmoil into the markets by issuing a baffling statement to the banks.
6
Can somebody tell DT and friends to just shut up for the time being ?
2
Trump left the country for awhile.
See! Trump went out of the country.
Pearls before swine.
1
Maybe Trump should STAY in Iraq.
2
Good! Glad it went down. Anything to hurt the rich and the 1%ers (narcissists, heartless, masochists, sadists) who are intentionally destroying the lives of all those below them. Teddy Roosevelt dealt with this trash 100yrs ago. So who has the guts to take them down now?! Do we never learn from 2008, 1929, the Rockefellers, war criminal GWBush regime and now the Trump Pence dictatorship etc? Remember the enemy, the 3Rs: the rich, the republicans, the religious.
5
Every evil idiot on the planet is out to get Trump.
Because he is the only politician who actually cares about the people he was elected to represent.
Get out of the man's way.
The community organizer had 0% interest rates during his entire tenure as president. They raise interest rates rapidly, just when he is about to leave office.
There are entrenched narrow interests out to get Trump.
For what it's worth this was a record one day increase for the S&P.
Crush the resistance. Forget the petty bickering and all Americans, except the tiny few who have some nefarious motives, will benefit.
This tiny minority will be OK too. Just not at our expense
2
@James
Celebrate while you can. History will remember the nightmare the community organizer inherited and the record, stable recovery his administration oversaw. GOP White House, Senate and House have acted in concert to undo restraints on thieving bankers and brokers passed after the prior GOP administration broke the world economy. Amazing how much damage can be done by so-called conservatives when they run the whole show. Hey, and how about that deficit?
@James,
Trump cares about himself only.
You think this govt shutdown will be bad? The fact that investors are all going to be down for the year, will mean taxes revenues will be even lower then the low amount previously expected from "the tax cut". Feds will need to borrow big, when it shouldn't -- in the middle of a pretty good economy.
Therefore expect further shutdowns, and when the economy inevitably cycles down again, we will have done nothing to reduce the nat'l debt, which will be yawning. Very shortsighted and just dumb McConnell and Trump policies.
Funny what happens whenTrump leaves the country for a few hours!
2
Trump and his cronies surely love it when the market goes up & down - they buy low and sell high and make millions while ordinary people worry. Trump doesn’t care if government employees don’t get their paychecks - he’s already given his friends the biggest stock market gain in history as a Christmas present. He can manipulate the market with his crazy tweets any time he wants, and it not only offers money-making opportunities, it also provides a distraction from the Mueller investigation. He’s having fun.
9
Happy to see all the ethically consistent individuals in the comments giving Trump his due for a temporary upward fluctuation after excoriating him for a temporary downward fluctuation.
3
Still down 20 percent for the quarter, a bear market signal.
6
It is a sucker's rally. The bear is not satiated and the market overvalued without the inflation of free Fed money.
15
Seems totally logical to me. Up is down, down is up. Completely consistent with everything else. Is this why Warren Buffet is a contrarian?
6
There was one reason why investors pushed the Dow and the S&P up by almost 5.00%: Trump left the country.
49
@slime2
This kind of comment, meant as a joke, characterizes the NYT commentariat. They've forgotten that the purpose of the government is to serve the general welfare, not to confirm or frustrate ad hominem arguments. Yes, Trump is a very troubled person. But he is the president, and his success is also our national success. Let's not put personal petty grievances above the general welfare. I've grown very tired of this tone in the NYT.
4
@Burroughs Yes, I understand Donald Trump is the President of the United States. But the office is not the cause of all of the troubles we are in, from the loss of respect from our allies to the incompetence in so many of our cabinet positions. The current resident of the Oval Office is that cause.
The consistent tone you speak of in this newspaper and the vast majority of other print and broadcast media is because of Donald J. Trump. No one else.
10
The rich used to complain that if you taxed them too much, there would not be any rich folks to tax anymore. But what we’re finding out is if you tax them too little, the they take it all and leave nothing for the rest of us.
41
I'll believe we're back from the brink after weeks of normal trading, not one day. Meanwhile, for many it is time to buy.
5
@Barbara
By the time a stock market rally is reported, it's already past the time to buy. Much of the buying (and selling) is done by computers anyway, not by people analyzing the situation.
5
@Barbara
My favorite financial planner bought in big this morning,he obviously was not alone.
Per Mr. Bannister,
"(The Fed regulators) do not realize how long and by how much they’ve tightened already...."
And all this time, I thought that the Federal Reserve directors and staff were on top of the interest rate history.
Please Mr. Bannister, send someone a text! A tweet!
2
As requested, The Plunge Protection Team did its thing today -- but there will be a HIDDEN PRICE...
3
volatility like we have seen is a sign of impending negative economic change.
7
Been posting this since sept:
The economy is not humming, it's on a crash trajectory.
I mark January 1, 2018 as the official end of Obama's economy and the beginning of the next economic crash trajectory.
Few supporting reasons:
1) corporate taxes were reduced by one third
1.1) creates artificial step increase in corporate performance without an actual increase in performance. (if a company's tax decreased by 1 million, its profit increased by 1 million, with zero change in goods and services produced)
1.2) money was used for stock buybacks, not for investment or wage increases
1.3) huge government borrowing (from China?) to make up for lost tax revenues, injecting billions of borrowed money into the economy, running up a huge goverment debt.
2) revoke Volcker rule, allows for propriety trading (gambling) with FDIC insured depositors savings by a few rich guys with access. This (combined with buybacks) is inflating another market bubble.
3) raised taxes (aka tariffs) on the middle class, which caused frontloading, another temporary bump in the economy.
4) two thirds of GDP is consumer spending, raised taxes (tariffs) places a huge drag on this.
The market is not the economy of course. Since it is not possible to time the market or the economy, it is impossible to know when the next crash will occur, but we are certainly on the trajectory.
18
This is bizarre. The stock market is broken thanks in large part to computerized trading. It is no longer a rational institution that is useful for economic projections. What will fill its place?
6
@Penchant
It has been strictly a gambling game for many years.
Today's record market rally is a clear sign from investors that the smart money is voting for an independent Fed, and with it, Powell, at NOT Trump's white house carnival.
The sooner his aides get him to stuff a sock in it, the sooner the markets globally can begin an upward trend.
Unfortunately, we can't all hold our breath for that to happen.
Tomorrow is the last day for normal-way tax loss selling. From there, maybe January effect if the shutdown is resolved.. After that, probably a lot of chop at best, and substantial risk of more downtrend if chaos continues to reign in the White House.
8
This was just a warning shot across the bow! The real downturn is coming and is inevitable under the policies of the Republicans and Trump. Do you think we are going to get away with cutting taxes/wealth redistribution to the wealthiest among us and exploding the debt with $20 trillion owed already and no plan to pay it off? A trade war with China ,where they have the means to target individual industries like our soybeans for retaliation and our president targets steel and coal and is clueless about the global economy? No infrastructure spending and a corrupt republican party that railed about a balance budget for 8yrs of Obama's presidency but "balanced budget" has disappeared from their vocabulary overnight. Military spending uncontrolled and Defense budget that can't pass a basic audit but is increased annually without restraint? Dream on!
26
Nothing makes the "Market Move" like a $64 BILLION dollar buy back of Equities to make sure Corporate Earnings are high - can't have those bonuses to the Execs below par…poor guys…
According to Wells Fargo, "the huge, end-of-quarter buy order was precipitated by the jarring divergence between equity and bond performances both in Q4 and the month of December…As a result of this need for massive quarter-end rebalancing, corporate pensions would need to boost their equity portfolios by as much as $64 billion into year-end."
Otherwise, they'd be "looking at a historically large outflow of about $57 billion."
So much for reassuring blather from retailers, the White House, Moscow (I'm surprised Putin wasn't blamed for something…) and Wall Street.
Pure manipulation from the Plunge Protection Team, Wells Fargo and the Fed…
17
Is it just a coincidence that the current occupant was out of the country on the biggest gain in Dow history? Something tells me it was not. The tweets were silent and the market responded.
12
The real reason for the market's swoon is not Trump, criticism of Jay Powell, rising interest rates or even the China-U.S. trade tensions.
The reason for the decline is Wall Street apprehension over the incoming "democratic socialists" (an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Let the War on Wealth begin, with the NYT Commenters, I'm reasonably certain, as Cheerleaders.
5
@Connecticut Yankee So how do you explain the 1,000 pt gain today, as we edge ever closer to the democrats taking control of the House? From where I sit -- which isn't Connecticut -- the roller coaster stock market has everything to do with a presidential Twitter feed and some of the worst policy decisions this country has ever seen. Perhaps one of the remaining "advisors" to this president can help explain to him how Twitter musings of firing the Fed Chair have significant ramifications.
28
@Connecticut Yankee So, how do you solve the deficit, infrastructure, healthcare, and defense without at least an examination of tax revenues and sources? Such a tired old mantra. Let's just cut taxes to zero and watch our economy soar? Is that how it works?
20
@Connecticut Yankee: The wealthy began their War on Everyone Else two years ago, when they helped Trump get elected, installed themselves in the cabinet, infested the federal government, and bought themselves a giant tax cut as a reward. The democratic socialists are going to save the economy for everyone else - from the predations of the wealthy. Keep on pretending that y'all are the victims, though! Everyone Else - who are coping with unaffordable housing, healthcare, and education, along with decaying infrastructure - knows the wealthy started this war.
26
Please give credit where credit is due. The relentless bashing of the President and global uncertainties trumped up by the media (Syrian pull out for example) made the market jittery.
President had a resoundingly calming message that he was not going to be intimidated or forced to withdraw from his promise of making the southern border strong. Caravans are not breaching the border forcing the US into a third world country as countries like France have found out by accepting the hooded masses masquerading as refugees.
And, the market rebounded. What a Christmas present! Thank you, President Trump.
5
There are many factors in the stock market. A butterfly flaps its wings in China can cause the market to crash.
21
@Appu Nair The caravans never would have breached to border. Under Trump, Obama, or Bush. You need to come down here to San Diego and see the real walls that exist already.
7
@Appu Nair
Like the president you are clueless. He is a lying con man. Threatening to extend the Trump government shutdown for months and firing his personally appointed Fed chief is a "resounding calming message" over a measly symbolic $5 billion dollars? When have caravans breached our borders? Under Obama--NO! Deficit spending and fighting to keep the coal and other antiquated industries, will turn us into a 3rd world country before any illegal immigrants will. Good Luck!
7
This is what is known as a "Dead Cat Bounce". The US markets are up to the same level as last Friday's opening. This one-day rally doesn't change anything.
None of the underlying economic / political problems have been resolved. These include 1) Tariffs and a Trade war with China; 2) 2X overpriced stock values based on Shiller P/E's ; 3) impending Feb 2019 "debate" about raising the nation's debt ceiling; 4) the $1.5 Trillion tax cut that benefits the 1%; or 5) the March 2019 Hard BREXIT when Britain crashes out of the Eurozone.
If you're retired or within 10-years of retirement, Sell the Rally is the only responsible action an investor can take. Let the traders and speculators play without your retirement money.
42
The Chaos theory predicts wide swings before a jam, or in this case a fall. Traffic kind of works the same way without the removal of blockage.
11
And it could be down 1000 points tomorrow on the slightest bit of negative news. Blame Trump for this volatility. He likes turmoil, and it affects almost everything.
57
Markets thanked Trump for leaving the country with the biggest single day gain ever.
I’m sure if someone did a regression on stock market gains with the first day of Trump being out of the country, there would be a really good fit.
29
I was curious about the point that was brought up in the second-to-last paragraph, saying rising interest rates on bonds or savings accounts could make investments in stocks less appealing. My initial thoughts are that higher interest rates in other financial markets would make the stock market more appealing. Are they saying this would be due to the market potentially having less capital to invest? Or possibly less trust in the market due to declining returns elsewhere? Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.
5
@Steven
If interest rates on bonds rise, they become the more desirable investment and so demand for stocks falls. This pushes the price down. The actual market mechanism is that stocks have to offer a rate of return that is competitive with the higher interest rates on bonds. The only way that can occur is if the price of stocks falls so that the expected return on the investment in stocks rises (i.e., you pay a lower price for the same expected future earnings of the company).
12
Reply to Steven from Florida: They say higher interest rates make the markets lower because that makes bonds look like a better investment than they were "last week." Like, if the market goes up a few dollars in the stock you own, you've made money but that's imaginary till you sell. Buying a bond that pays 1% or putting money in a bank bond that pays even less is risk free but hardly worth the time. Buying a bond that pays 10% is way more desirable and lots safer than buying a stock. As interest goes up, risk averse people like those living on a set amount a year are happier to have a sure thing. It's better in general to have some of each way to invest available, of course, but making bonds pay decent interest draws stock market money away at first. The other point: when we have such a big debt burden as a nation, we have to pay good interest to get anyone to buy it.
5
@Steven Higher interest rates mean bond-buyers will earn more on their bonds.
2
What % of trading is done by algorithms and how much by humans these days?
22
Retail is all human. I don't think hardly any institutional is.
2
@Harris Silver
Great question!! 50% to 60% of the market depending on the day. Investor sentiment doesn't drive the market like it used to, but machine trading can cause these sudden and dramatic dips and jumps.
https://money.cnn.com/2018/02/06/investing/wall-street-computers-program-trading/index.html
4
If you have a President who is emotionally unstable, you will wind up with an unstable economy.... it doesn't take a genius to figure this out.
Also worth mentioning is the damage Donald Trump has done internationally - it will take years for us to heal the wounds that he has inflicted on our allies , this will be long after he will have been remembered as the worst nightmare in American history.
76
The markets were up today, but nothing has really changed from last week. Except the stocks were cheap and got bought back by corporations.Prices rising is just one part of the volatility, which will continue. I don't have the stomach for it so I sold most of my equities. Until the volatility stops, it's high yield savings and CDs for the win.
17
Wow the stock market has begun to rise again. Hopefully it will peak like it did in January 2017. But I will take it with a pinch of salt because and balance my retirement portfolio with further diversification by increasing the fixed income portion of my portfolio while waiting for the stock market to recover another 10%. Currently some CDs are around 3% for 3 years. Glad I did not enter any panic selling. As I said before nothing to fear but fear itself when the recent stock drop caused panic selling. Glad I stuck to my principle and did not sell at a loss. Remember the Kotwal principle you have not lost anything until you have not sold at a loss.
8
@Girish Kotwal I meant to say in the second sentence of my post above January 2018 when the stock market peaked nit January 2017. Sorry for the typo.
1
So what I would like to know. How many members of the government and other elites bought up the stocks when the value had dropped and now have made a quick profit when they rebounded. We should all believe that everything that is happening now is all a coincidence. The government shutdown, the actions of the federal reserve in raising interests rates, the strange statements of the Secretary of the Treasury which caused the markets to drop and now the sudden rebound. This wasn't planned by the elites that run our country.....Sure, Sure...Anyone interested in a bridge?
18
Only if one believes in market timing (I don't). No one can guarantee a bottom (or a top for that matter) to the market. It might continue rising tomorrow, or it might fall again. Who knows? Hint: no one. Buy and hold low cost index mutual funds; diversify; and keep calm. I've lost big bucks this time around (in retirement), and have before). It always comes back, sooner or later.
1
@Darryl B. Moretecom - The government shutdown is scarcely a secret. Anyone can buy stocks when the market is down, and some of them do make money.
The stock I bought this morning went up nearly 3 points, so I made a big.....$266!
2
@fFinbar
"members of the government and other elites" members of the government like the DMV clerk and the post office carrier? Which Illuminati in the National Forest service do you figure can time the market?
The markets figured out that Trump is not serious about his threats & that he doesn't speak for the government. Is this good news? We have a president who knows nothing!
12
Uncertainty is never good for Wall Street or the economy.
This kind of yo-yo behavior, if it keeps up, will do its own damage both to stocks and the economy, with a great deal of the uncertainty not only being the crazy things that come out of Trump's mouth, but the trade policy he has embarked on. That has already cost jobs and factories to close, not to mention not one single grain of soy sold to China.
Trump is on the warpath for a whole lot of reasons. He isn't the kind of man who will, for even a moment, stop to think about who else he takes down with him.
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren’t Looking
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2ZW
17
The stock prices dropped so low that they became bargains and traders are buying them up.
The stock market is only loosely related to the domestic economy. Whether it goes up or down tells little about the real economy that determines our domestic financial state. Most of the wealth represented by money in the stock market is not closely related to our domestic economy and it has not since the proportion of wealthy people depending upon wealth producing industrial activities amongst the rich started to shrink thirty years ago. The greater proportion of wealthy people are wealthy because securities. Exceptions in computer related business operations rely mostly upon global operations and so still don’t reflect wealth generated in our domestic economy. Anyone who fails to see from where the money comes that is invested in securities is going to misperceive what the ups and downs represent.
We look at the stock market as if it were the 1960’s and try to explain how it changes using that same perspective. The stocks fund capital that is used for many purposes globally and for corporate readjustments of assets which don’t affect wealth creation in this country as it once did.
25
Today.
7
Winning is for Losers.
Thanks, GOP.
8
Let's not count our chickens before they hatch. The S&P 500 shares traded at 3:30pm EAT were 1,944,146,680. Average daily volume is over 4 million per day. This is a light trading day and has little value in giving any indicator of direction.
December is horrible, and 2019 is as uncertain as ever. Actually worse.
20
@cherrylog754, but, see, that's (one of) the (many) ridiculous thing(s) about the stock market. A light trading day sets the price of a stock in the same exact way as a heavy day. The price of the stock is the price at its last trade, regardless how many shares are actually traded.
5
Cherrylog has a good point -- this may have been short covering, not broad-based buying. The market looks very stupid, meaning that according to the action today, stocks with very good fundamentals are no more or less worth buying than those with terrible fundamentals. Why would this be?
3
Now if Whosis will just keep his mouth shut, maybe the Markets will get back on track. Fat chance.
26
Mulvaney and Mnuchin: members in good standing of Traitor Trump's vaunted "B" team.
15
This drop was a long overdue correction. The stock market was overvalued and had not experienced a significant retrenchment in quite awhile. For those who feel interest rates at 2.5% are two high look back at history.
13
This is the giddy side of market instability. Look for bigger and bigger twists and turns before a harsh reality ultimately sinks in. Trump is the ultimate destabilizing influence on the market, and will be for as long as he remains in office. He must be removed from office before something happens that cannot be undone.
78
Stock manipulation at the top? The president and the top finance guy say unexpected and unjustified things that scare the market. Prices drop. Then they say things to reassure the market that what they said wasn't true, or implied bad news. Oh, and throw in specific advice to buy up the suddenly low priced stocks of good companies. Prices jump. Doesn't the SEC have an investigative role here?
107
@Bill
It's either manipulation as you state or the market, upon hearing that Powell was safe, took heart that trump was not in charge! Sad ....
3
@tried IMO no reason to take heart. Given his past performance in self dealing in his 'charity' and his on going emoluments violations with the DC Old Post Office hotel, and the string of frauds (eg 'university') and other money-grasping, a couple bouts of stock fraud would fit right in. This might have been the test run. Hold on for bigger dips later in markets --- around the world.
3
@Bill-Certainly worked for Trump's sometimes advisor Carl Icahn. Shortly before Trump announced tariffs, Icahn dumped millions in steel-related stocks. Now how did he know to do that?
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/28/carl-icahns-failed-raid-on-washington
https://money.cnn.com/2016/11/09/investing/carl-icahn-donald-trump-election/index.html
3
Isn't Trump out of the country? Market rise coincidence? Maybe Iraq will allow him to stay there...
43
Hey I ran a PR 2 days ago.
Yay me! I had a spike in my personal graph line.
But my overall trend is as flat as a runway! But at least I'm on a plateau. I'm not sliding down a slope...! Or bulging at a constraint(belt).
As to the subject; Whats the overall TREND...?!?!?! Well, we can all look at the graphs and take a furtive look at our 401K's, etc...and see whats really happening. A lot of downward sloping...compounded by a flatness, and stuff that is deep in the well (most wages) and not being pulled out. These little blips and "PR's" are not telling the whole and truest story.
We gotta stop these daily shiny object gatherings round the market numbers. Its like a fetish now.
The Trends are obvious. As to the causes...lots of room for discussion, but most in need of careful observation and analysis.
As to the Trump effects. Its 2019 when we'll truly those hit. I expect by spring/summer...we'll be seeing their real and mainly hurtful effects.
10
Did the market go up because Trump left the country?
143
@C.A.
Thank God Obama is out of office.
No, because wise investors saw opportunity.
1
@C.A.— that’s clearly what the editorializing author of the article wanted us to think.
"Shares in Amazon, which described the holiday season as “record breaking” without offering financial details, also rose more than 4 percent."
Should be illegal to hide the details and is par for the course with the misdeeds and malfeasance of Amazon.
But investors are also foolish if they react to Amazon purple prose!
6
Trump will slip a monkey wrench into any rally. He is taking a more hands-on approach with everything now (based on his prodigious gut's feeling), which means experts will be relegated to the sidelines and Trumpian bedlam will prevail.
17
"worst annual performance since the financial crisis a decade ago"
Trump's presidency, in a nutshell.
The stock market rising was all he could "brag" about (as if any gains had anything to do with him)...
...and speaking of the Border Wall, look at the NY Times article today about the recent (thanks to Bush and Obama) significant improvements in border security etc...Trump voters and Fox news have no idea about this important stuff...
16
'...Mr. Powell’s job was “100 percent” safe.'
A statement like this, coming from anyone associated with Liar-in-Chief trump, is 0 percent believable.
31
Vegas has better odds right now than the stock market with the guy we have as POTUS. If you want to play, you better be ready for a good ride. Global Economy slowing down, recession possibilities & Trump's mouth & twitter feed, crazy impulses & his vindictives.
11
all it takes is one tweet
21
"Kevin Hassett,... told reporters...that Mr. Powell’s job was “100 percent” safe....after similar remarks by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Mick Mulvaney,"
The markets are skittish, between China's slowing economy, the tariffs, goverment shutdown, and who knows what else is in the pipeline of uncertainty, watch out for 2019.
Oh, Powell's job may be safe, but if the markets continue to tank, who needs an economic adviser i.e. Hassett, or a let's point a finger at the Munchkin, or even the new Chief of Staff Mulvaney. History of this Administration has been renamed "The Expendables".
4
Amazing how much bolstering from the Fed is desired. Trump criticized the Fed for keeping interest rates low during the Obama administration in order to make him "look good". The Obama administration was scratching the economy back from the Great Recession. Trumps policies and erratic governance has shaken confidence and has already squandered economic progress made on all fronts.
10
Every single thing about Donald Trump is fraudulent, except his unfitness for office.
16
Short covering.
Don’t get too excited. This wil be a sideways market for the next bunch of months before confidence is restored.
3
If the stock market is shut for a holiday nothing happens why not shut it for a week as it does not produce any real value? We always get experts for both scenarios at the same time they explain why it is going down and why it is going up so at least there is always an expert right.
3
I don't know which changes or goes up or down faster, Trump's mind or the stock market.
I vote for the mind.
5
Value investors may be doing some buying, as there are some good companies with decent prices now. I picked up a few stocks this morning, before things really took off.
But as an experienced investor, I know that the market goes on forever. There will be days in the future when prices are lower today, and day when they are higher. Nobody blows a horn at the bottoms, or the tops.
If you see a company you like at a lowish price, then buy it. The odds are in your favor, and you will probably make money in the long run.
5
@Jonathan
Any recommendations???
Sounds like a horoscope and you will probably make money .... probably or lose money.
And no one cares about the national debt ?
If we don’t see a 3.5% GDP growth there will be a reckoning.
5
It's not if but when not when our national debt will be huge issues when interest rate gona drive economy into hell. Just focue on paying off ur house and C.C debt asap and have multiple retirement plan aka S.S, Pension, 401k, real estate, liquid assets (cash), gold.
If Trump can drive the market down by his volatile and erratic behavior maybe he can reverse the direction by his buy recommendations.A steadier hand at the wheel coupled with positive comment could get Trump some positive reviews from the market. At least in market terms 2019 could be a better year.
1
So happy for the oil companies and their investors.
10
This stockmarket rise does probably not mean much: trading volume is small the day after Christmas.
Soon worries will take over again: slowing world economy, trade wars, government shutdown, Trump and Mnuchin tweets... Plenty to worry about.
Sometimes, I also wonder wether Trump, Mnuchin and their families are not shorting stocks the day the Donald tweets.
58
@SJP: The underlying fundamentals hasn’t changed - the tax-cut high has worn off, and the tariffs are still out there. Salaries for most of us are still flat - hard to keep a consumer-based economy humming when fewer and fewer people can afford to buy things.
The bubble is deflating, and it’ll take more than happy talk to turn this economy around.
15
But wait! So long as Trump can tweet, and Mnuchin is allowed to be anywhere near a phone, all disastrous things are possible.
20
@Leigh. 100% agree!
Mnuchin and wife should go on a permanent vacation to Fort Knox! Have them count all the gold there.
The only reason he hasn't been driven out by his misdeeds is that most of the rest of the cabinet has been far more corrupt!
Elsewhere, in "DRAIN THE SWAMP -- NOT" news, Trump's pick for Defense Secretary is a 30-year veteran of Boeing who has no government or military experience and very little foreign policy knowledge -- indeed, by most reports and his Congressional testimony, he is woefully uninformed about foreign policy.
12
Remember, we the people are here, kind of in the way. A farm has an optimal number of livestock to run efficiently, it can grow or shrink based on acreage and market supply and demand. But in the U.S., many of us are just in the way. True, the larger the herd, the more income, but that's only with the producing livestock putting out labor, meat, milk, wool and eggs. 38% of the U.S. population is producing, the rest are too young, too old or too lame.
The stock market runs independently of the farm like the Friday night poker game at the kitchen table in the farm house. We the people never get into the game, perhaps the cats and dog are lying about, but the rest of us are out to pasture or in the barn. And they're betting bales of hay, grain, milk, meat, eggs, wool and other commodities, and sometimes when the game gets tight, they trade livestock amongst each other. Being resourceful, they even trade time on the tractor, the truck hauling and fertilizer purchases. Towards the end of the night and when they're all soused, they're betting on just about every aspect of the farm including the real property.
And so it goes, we read these articles knowing the only thing we can do is hope they don't get into a drunk fight, knock over the kerosene lamp, burn down the house and catch the farm on fire.
41
I’d like to thank the GOP for raising my taxes and dropping my 401k.
Here’s a New Years wish: may you be crushed and never be a political force again - you and that thing in the White House!
352
@The 1% - Sorry, but the 401k was the Republicans' idea (and the Democrats fought against.)
8
@Connecticut Yankee
Thanks you for saying this. People act as if 401K's are somehow the normal state of affairs, when in fact their advent was a vicious, self-serving act on the part of corporate America, Republicans, etc. Forcing the average person to invest in the stock market to 'secure' their retirement is criminal.
141
@Connecticut Yankee Say what? The 401k came out of the IRS, the itself is actually credited to a single IRS employee. And for a while, Republicans were determined to make it harder for employees to keep what's theirs:
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/394803-house-republicans-are-coming-for-your-401k
7
Who would have confidence in the economy of a country led by an obviously incompetent person who denies objective reality and lies with abandon (except to 7 year old about Santa)?
119
@Facts Matter
Yes, the facts do matter.
I'll expand upon your very good post, tweaking it slightly.
"Who would have confidence in the economy of a country led by an obviously incompetent Republican Party that denies objective reality and lies with abandon? "
26
@Facts Matter
The 72-year-old pretend president still believes in a pretend TV businessman called 'Donald Trump'.
Very marginal.
7
Trump firing the head of the Fed; "NO WAY" from Trump spokesman; 20 min later; Trump spokesman "Mnuchin just fired the head of the Fed because he was mean to Mr Trump". That is why markets are in a roller coaster. Trump has no principles; only what is good for Trump. Dems must control him in Jan; GOP never will. Ray Sipe
21
Members of the Trump administration have announced that Jerome Powell's job is safe.
If I were Mr. Powell, I'd start cleaning out my office. Once this White House says you're not going to be fired, your sell-by date is approaching.
65
The recent stock losses are close to 15% on average and so this bounce has a long way to go to recover the losses. Decent dividends would help too for those average Americans whose retirement portfolios have taken a major blow in December. Good stocks are now available at bargain prices just like after Christmas sales of consumer goods. I expect the stock market could keep rising before new year.
4
One of the comments noted that Trump said "to buy on the dip".
First, the big money is already in and out in .000001 second.
Second, with 7 to 8 lies per day, first Trump wouldn't shut down the government.
Third, he would shut down the government and accept full blame!
Fourth, Right!!!!!
3
@Quandry
take the only reliable advice from trump: do the 180 degree opposite of whatever he says.
4
I'm no financial expert. I'm not wealthy and the only stocks I benefit (or not) from are in my retirement accounts and pension. Where is that Harvard-trained economist who can rationally explain to me that this stock market nose dive isn't decoupled from a strong economy and isn't the result of speculators playing a multi-trillion dollar game of craps?
23
You don‘t need a Harvard-educated person to explain the current volatility, or general short term movements in the stock market. All you need is Benjamin Graham‘s infamous quote:
‚In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run it is a weighing machine.‘
In brief, the basic notion behind this quote is short term movements in the stock market reflect emotional reactions from investors to current incidents and news.
In the long term, the performance of stock market will behave like a weighing machine in that these emotional reactions will disappear eventually showing the real intrinsic values of the underlying companies.
I would love to get more in detail, but I will probably then submit an even longer answer. Feel free to research and read more from Benjamin Graham‘s publications.
All the best from Germany!
38
@T Kelly - The simplest explanation is this: over the past ten years, large companies have adjusted their business models to make money with low interest rates. Institutional money managers have done the same thing.
Now, interest rates aren't so low. Companies and money managers won't do as well, and have to make quick changes to adjust. So even if the economy does well, stocks still need to come down.
4
@Jonathan: I took a look at a graph of the Dow Industrial Average- it’s about back to where it was before the big tax cut for corporations and the rich. Perhaps we’re just seeing the tax cut sugar high wearing off.
5
Some "bounce"! The S&P 500 depicted has only just recovered from Monday's losses perhaps due to some post-Christmas bargain shopping. The market dynamics have not changed with its volatility matching Trump's with a government shutdown; continuing attacks on Fed Chair, Jerome Powell; no break in the trade war with China by the "Tariff Man;" and growing concern of his mounting erratic behavior and instability with no "adults in the room" as economic advisers.
16
This is profit-taking pure and simple.
11
I saw this a few hours ago, and I thought « what ?? »
Just to be sure, I Googled « profit taking ».
« Profit taking » is after the stock price has risen, and investors sell stocks to turn their profits into true Dollar profits. It usually leads to some price decline.
The news item is about a price increase, today, after about a week or more of declines. This is not « profit taking », and apparently you are using a word that you don’t understand.
1
Now this is why I like climate change. It makes up its mind which direction it’s going to go and then it deliberately goes there, not like some fool chicken without a head running around every which way.
5
Well, this administration now has me asking: How much of this is attributable to FAKE buy orders (following the lead of the Saudi market's "great" gains) and how much to normal (queezy) speculation associated with the "stabilizing" Trump administration's blabber on the economy?
6
Remember when the WH stood behind the President and reinforced his policies and messages, NOT frantically putting out fires set by the delusional political arsonist Trump because of his sick obsession with himself? Remember when lies were still lies and people have the decency to admit to lying when caught?
56
@Min Wu-Hopefully the stock market gyrations are enough to penetrate the Fox Entertainment News bubble. Or at least their advertisers being hurt by this administration will stop enabling them and pull their advertising.
1
The stock market it looking more like a casino than anything else.
I can imagine all the traders shoving their money on the pass line and hoping for a seven or eleven on any given day.
No thanks!
91
@Bob Burns
And we all know trump's record with casinos.
29
Better to put your money under a thick mattress.
4
Don’t worry they’re coming back down.
With the reduction in the corporate tax rate, the entire economy has been flooded with cash. The Trump Administration’s policies have been nothing but inflationary, with the objective of putting cash in wealthy donors’ pockets.
The Fed is withdrawing that cash 1-for-1, forcing companies to use the incremental dollars to invest in their businesses and fund their own buybacks & dividends, rather than taking unsecured loans.
The have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too hypothesis is quickly eroding, snapping valuations back to sub-status-quo with limited positive catalysts in the foreseeable future.
The only question remaining is: who’s going to hold the bag?
14
The longer we/the market refuse/s to get to capitulation, the harder we will fall when we finally get there.
4
This is only good for those who make money on market volatility. I think we do not tax this type of transaction enough. The stock market is for investment, not gambling.
15
Isn’t it a bit early to claim “stocks bounce back”?
Perhaps we should at least wait till the end of the day?
I’m expect Trump’s minions are busy - getting money from their credit cards to buy on the famed “dip” - only to find that in a few days that dip will be just a drop in the bucket; and their credit card will still demand to be paid (or claim interest on the debt).
16
Today I’ve seen headlines from “Markets up!” to “Markets down!” to “Markets up!” and so on. I particularly like how a market drop of 19.7% isn’t a bear, but 20.0 is one. If a business gets tanked because rates went up 0.25%, the business has much bigger issues.
Yes, the market volatility is as good as the presidents. What did it do today? Look after it closes. Why is all of this noise, esp. Trump, considered news? Yes the Fed Chair was going to get fired, now it’s all rosy. Who believes these stories as they come out anymore? The White House is more about disinformation that governing with any sense of direction. Sadly, the news seems to follow.
20
NOT FOR LONG! Trump will screw this up as he has done to everything else. He is quick to take credit for Market increases which he did not cause and silent when the bottom falls out because he messed with things that he has no business doing.
How soon we forget, or ignore, those trade war issues, political instabilities in NK, China and the Middle East, the huge new national debt burden and temporary reward of $1.4 TRILLION to the rich. Very soon the rest of the country will wake up to no national health care, no infrastructure repair, failing education and a totally corrupt politics system under Trump. If they hate instability now, just wait until this fit hits the shan!
Don't count on your 401Ks OR Social Security OR Medicare - we won't have the money. Trump, Mnuchin, Ross, Koch and the rest of the acolytes will.
86
Many of trump's supporters are too occupied collecting social service benefits to think about or care about us folks that pay for them. His supporter: corporate welfare "persons" and his many rural America comrades.
35
The run was a result of the Obama's economic strategy, just like everything else it must be undone.
16
Trumponomics at work. Up; down or sideways. Complete chaos. If your spouse ran your household budget like this; you would take away their bank book.Dems in Jan need to freeze this Trump fiasco. Ray Sipe
28
It's beginning to look a lot like a Republican Administration. But, Trump is trashing the stock market in record time. It took Bush W. nearly seven years.
196
“Stocks Rise” - after Trump urged his crazed followers to “buy on the dip.”
How many of these people will “buy” on credit? Only to see the value of their “purchases” evaporate, when Trump’s assurances that they’ll profit from his advice turn out to be wrong?
Trump cares only about his own well-being. Thus, he is incapable of factoring in the well-being of his followers and the fallibility of his advice to them. He’s likely shooting himself in the foot with this advice. But what about their welfare? What about how many will suffer every time the markets go lower?
Trump has made himself appear to be a Fortune Teller. And when he turns out to be wrong - yet again - he’ll find someone else to blame.
I hope his followers hang onto their money. Or their common sense. Otherwise they’ll be fleeced for sure. Maybe not today. But soon.
17
The U.S. stock market veered up and down for months before it finally crashed in 1929.
In those days only the wealthiest put their money on the craps tables but even then their greed caused mass unemployment and nearly destroyed OUR United States.
Fortunately, FDR/Elanor Roosevelt stepped in and used unprecedented power to create government jobs so people could eat and social safety nets so 99.9% of the people would be safe when greed went out of control again. Those steps saved OUR country and countless lives - and allowed America to become the prosperous nation it was.
The Con Don has made sure the same steps won't work again by putting us further in Trillions dollars of debt and trying to make sure his Robber Baron brethren control OUR U.S. Treasury and cabinets so they get the contracts to use the money at slave labor costs.
Let the markets fall. Do NOT bail out the International Mafia Robber Barons again. WE THE PEOPLE are prepared to save OUR country with OUR ingenuity and guts in every way we can and WE are what makes America great!
61
@njglea
You give short shrift to the role of WWII in ending the Great Depression. New Deal programs undoubtedly gave needed relief to many people, but they didn’t solve the depression. You also ignore the numbers of people far from the top 1% who have money, directly or indirectly, in the stock market.
10
@Lindah
Functionally, WWII was a government program that differed only in degree from other govt. programs as far ending the depression is concerned. An equal government program without the war would have been just as effective. In fact, FDR's intervention in the economy began to be scaled back after his first term thanks largely to determined opposition.
11
The economy is still in good shape. Had the president concentrated on the state of the economy instead of insisting on the wall, the markets would never have shuddered. But now they have and his behavior makes it impossible to have confidence in the future. It is very important that Republicans understand that this president is not good for the country, not good for the markets and not good for the world. His tax breaks were ill conceived and will have future consequences in terms of the deficit. It's time to take a look at whether we want the 'drunk uncle' in the White House. The last week has made the world realize that this is no joke. Do your job Washington! China has a fifteen year plan, we have a fifteen minute and 140 character plan. This is not a plan.
366
The "economy" is only strong for 0.01%, thewriterstuff.
52
@njglea The economy is strong for anyone who has a job that didn't have one after the crash of 2008. The economy is not just for investors in the stock market, it is for everyone who has to pay their rent of a mortgage.
16
@njglea
Which is why we got Trump.
3