This Market Has Its Freq On

The Wall Street Journal ^ | April 15, 2010 | David Weidner

[Cheap_Hessian]

Can a market rally without investors? Low volume, with significant trading in just a few stocks, suggests that recent gains have come without them.

On Wednesday, the stock market continued its post-crisis run. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 103.69 points to close at 11123.11. The S&P 500 climbed back over 1200, finishing at 1210.65. The Dow is now up 6.7% since the start of the year; the S&P is up 8.6%.

[Red Badger]

What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?..........

[jwparkerjr]

I am not an investor. And what’s more I have only the slightest understanding of things financial. But as an outside this whole market thing looks way too much like the housing bubble! Prices going up, despite the lack of solid news that would warrant such increases.

IMHO.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

I agree. We need to understand that stock prices do not necessarily correlate with actual growth and health in a company. A company's stock will often rise after a big layoff - lots of needless expenditures were just saved, from the viewpoint of the suits who make such decisions.

[mlocher]

I have been following the market closely for the last year. Something about my nest egg..... (or the lack thereof)....

I have been dividing the DJIA by the US Dollar Index. From the period of October 2009 to February 2010, the ratio was fairly stable, implying that the DJIA was driven by the value of the dollar. The ratio has been increasing since mid March, suggesting the true value of the DJIA is increasing, albeit slightly.

Investors have yet to believe in DJIA growth and in economic growth, so volume is very light.

[mlocher]

And what’s more I have only the slightest understanding of things financial.

Don't worry about it. Obama is going to take all things financial, so you do not have a skill that you will not need to ever again use.

[Cheap_Hessian]

Basically, we have a jobless and investorless “recovery”.

[dawn53]

Stocks are up because of profits...profits are up because of this (how long can you sustain a recovery at the expense of the “average joe”...I think sooner or later it’ll catch up to these companies):

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63E2VK20100415?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Fortune 500 shed record 821,000 jobs in 2009
Phil Wahba
NEW YORK

Thu, Mar 18 2010NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Fortune 500 largest U.S. companies slashed a record 821,000 jobs last year, even as their collective profit soared more than three-fold to $391 billion, according to the business magazine, which issued the annual ranking on Thursday.

The companies suffered an 8.7 percent drop in 2009 sales as the recession, the sharpest decline since 1983, took its toll and spared few industries last year, but the cost cutting, including the job cuts, more than offset that.

[gathersnomoss]

There are a butt load of bricks waiting to fall. The market, homes, commercial property, “unexpected” job loss increases...etc, etc,.

This market is a joke waiting for a few more suckers. Or it may be held up by FOBO.

[gathersnomoss]

“A company’s stock will often rise after a big layoff....”

And just when does everyone think these companies will rehire?

Not for a long time.

Grab hold.

[cake_crumb]

The media and “experts” insist on touting these market increases as proof the resession is over, even though the markets ate not the be-all, end-all indicator of economic health they would have us believe. This reminds me of the late ‘90s under Clinton, when we were told how great and wonderful the economy was, while large companies were going out of business or being chased out of the US due to increasing costs (especially tazes and union wages/pensions), unemployment was slowly going up and the masses all seemed to have increasingly less money in our pockets to spend.

Artificial gains like that one and this one are unsustainable for very long.

[Cheap_Hessian]

But the experts are calling this a “V” shape recovery... who can argue with that? /s

[Freddd]

More unemployed on the way...stocks are rising...because they are letting employee’s go.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

“This market is a joke waiting for a few more suckers. Or it may be held up by FOBO.”.....

There’s a lot of money sloshing around at the big banks after the bailout with our tax money. I agree that it will be moved a lot lower. I’m starting to think it will move lower after the republicans kick ass in November. Thats when John Q. Public will jump in thinking it’s o.k. to get back in. I thought it would be lower now with the disaster in the White House. The market always manages to wait and wait then grab all the money and run when you least expect it.