Posted on 12/24/2018 11:43:28 AM PST by reaganaut1
A bruising stock selloff continued, erasing more than 650 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to instill calm into a jittery market.
Coming off the stock market’s worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell for a fourth straight session Monday as investors continued to weigh the impact of rising interest rates, slowing U.S. growth, and the ramifications of a government shutdown extending into January.
With the selloff showing little signs of slowing, Mr. Mnuchin attempted to reassure investors, saying he had spoken individually with the chief executives of six large banks to ensure they had sufficient lending capacity.
But Mr. Mnuchin’s public efforts to soothe investors may have had the opposite effect, analysts said, with banks stocks falling along with most other assets Monday.
“We’ve gone through situations before where it’s absolutely normal for the secretary of Treasury to reach out to the private sector,” said Quincy Krosby, a chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, who also served several stints in the government earlier in her career.
“But what’s bad is this made the papers, and says the government is very worried,” said Ms. Krosby, adding that with investors focused on so many issues, “it’s almost as if gravity is pulling this market toward a lower level before it bottoms out.”
Adding to the market’s unease were reports over the weekend that President Trump, angry over monetary policy, has considered removing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell—a move that would stir even greater volatility and raise questions around political inference at the central bank, analysts said.
White House advisers, including Mr. Mnuchin, sought to ease those concerns as well, saying the president doesn’t have the authority to remove Mr. Powell.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
The market has been overvalued for sometime. The next shoe to drop is the real estate market.
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I’ve been seeing those “how to make money flipping real estate” ads.
Sorry about your 401k or whatever's got you bleating, but you're making an ass of yourself.
People who say stupid things do that.
Everyone knows the stock market is totally manipulated by the corrupt big players. It's no secret. If you're one of those, stop blaming others and blame yourself.
Are we really a bunch of morons here, or what?
Lael Brainard was not appointed by Trump, neither was Powell. Powell was an Obama apointee.
There are five on the board now, three were appointed by Trump.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Board_of_Governors#cite_note-usc12-241-1
“has been bought by someone else”
But the profit? (Say he bought when Trump was elected.)
Sure if someone ‘works’ in the market he bought another stock or bond.
But other people could spend, or invest, it on practically anything: their property, their business... etc .
” tanking the market in December 2018 ... to get Trump out in 2020? “
Consider that Trump is causing slightly hard times now- but his opponents are jumping in to make it worse.
It’s like if a driver turns right, but a passenger pushes the steering wheel further.
Those that did get involved knew the risks.
Trump has the right to his chosen appointments and the right to publicly express disagreements with them. Maybe he’ll replace Powell with Ron Paul to match our new Libertarian foreign policy.
You mean, like when America actually made things, in America?
I think historical averages are not the right things to be paying attention to, actually.
Sorry, but I don’t.
Trump is a moron sometimes but most of the people on FR are too busy cleaning his underwear to notice. Are there any thinkers on this site besides me??
A couple of things to keep in mind re volume: today was a short day, and many traders also decided not to "show up" but to take a very long weekend.
Also, volume (+direction) as a technical indicator in and of itself doesn't mean a lot — Santa Claus rally usually takes place on a light volume... today it was a Santa Claus crash.
More important is a sustained number of 52-wk Highs and Lows and A/D (Advancing issues vs Declining issues) — e.g., today was 69 new highs vs 3151 new lows (!) and 1667 advancing vs 5531 declining. 771 above 200-day Simple Moving Average vs 6753 below 200 SMA. In other words, the breadth of the market is downright awful.
VIX was up almost 20% today and is now relatively high at 36.
Of course, it's always darkest before the dawn, and volatility is great for trading and there are always individual opportunities in issues or industries or sectors... but at this stage it seems it's way too early to invest long term in "the market" itself — the future earnings numbers are coming down pretty fast relative to current prices and economic activity is slowing down sharply around the world and about 45% of earnings at S&P 500 companies are from overseas.
There are still huge amounts of government, consumer and enterprise financing debt which is not spent most productively, to put it mildly (e.g., stock buybacks at the peak prices and ratios and expensive leveraged M&A and LBOs, like in "good ole' times") while the output productivity has slowed to a crawl.
FD (Full Disclosure): This is not an investment advice! My non-core portfolio is net short.
What the heck do you think you're doing, interjecting facts into the middle of a tantrum?
Being older than most posters here, it is my job to prevent panic lol
Merry Christmas!!
I’m not in the market. I was a futures trader for 10 years. Doubt there is much you can teach me but thx anyway.
Amazon stock is on sale,, buy it and make some free money
Too funny....Trump opines, but the Fed acts trying to make up for 12 years of lost time and it’s Trump’s fault.....so say those who continued to bet on a bent market....
Wow, It is only awesome if you want a Democrat elected to the White House and really despise Trump, workers , money doesn’t just go somewhere else, it is decreased, lost or increased and what is not lost from 401ks is often parked in cash, “stuffed in a mattress”.,discretionary spending slows (less $s for restaurants, autos) Right now for 2018 all asset classes are declining and that includes bonds, real estate, gold, etc. please try and understand wealth creation it is not a static or a fixed amount of money. Otherwise the wealth today would be the same as it was one hundred years ago. Trumps approval numbers have been bolstered by the booming stock market, now that it is in correction territory and headed to bear market you can expect his approval to fall along with peoples 401ks . Also pelase try and understand that poor people and poor compnies don’t hire anyone. Companies stocks fall, and jobs will fall along with them. For every 1% increase in unemployment in the USA there are 1,500 more depths.
Welcome to FR newbie. The sky is not falling chicken little and Trump and his base will be fine.
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