Metals and Stocks Sell-off on Good News --Investor Thread March 8, 2015

Weekly investment & finance thread ^ | Mar 8, 2015 | Freeper Investors

[expat_panama]

excerpt from: Stock Indexes Take Hard Hits; Market Uptrend Under Pressure Stocks ratcheted lower Friday in fast trade, with the indexes suffering their biggest percentage losses since late January. The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 skidded 1.1% and 1.4%, respectively. [snip] What they're saying is stocks plunged in higher volume and the S&P 500 smacked down into the danger warning ten-week moving average.  It's supposed to be a bad sign, a sell signal, a harbinger bad moon rising.  Only thing is that the last two times this kind of signal popped up--   ←  they ended up turning into fabulous buying opportunities.   However this time is different.  No really!!  I mean, precocious metals so far this year had been upbeat but prices for both gold and silver (from here) now are both crashing to year lows: The story now is that all this market movement's being blamed on the old "goodnews is badnews" song sung by the fed-watchers.  Market watch pretty much summed it up (on the right).     *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *       This is the thread where folks swap ideas on savings and investment --here's a list of popular investing links that freepers have posted here and tomorrow morning we'll go on with our-- Open invitation continues always for idea-input for the thread, this being a joint effort works well.   Keywords: financial, WallStreet, stockmarket, economy.

excerpt from: Good news is bad again: Economic data in focus this week SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Investors will likely be more sensitive to economic data in the coming week as stocks received a big dose of “good news is bad news” last week, after a better-than-expected jobs report was blamed for a drop in the market. Investors unloaded stocks after a positive jobs report hinted the Federal Reserve could begin hiking rates sooner than later. Friday’s losses meant a 1.5% weekly loss for the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.54% , a 1.6% loss for the S&P 500 Index SPX, -1.42% and a weekly loss of 0.7% for the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -1.11% Not only will Monday mark the sixth birthday for the S&P 500’s bull market, but it starts the start of the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing program, which is intended to last until at least Sept. 2016. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases is January job openings data. Last month, December job openings reached their highest monthly level since 2001 at 5.03 million. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expect 5 million for January. Job openings expected to stay at 2001 highs. Also, on Tuesday, the NFIB small business index for February comes out. On Wednesday... [snip] The good news is we also got bad news! The job-openings facts are impressive even after correcting for population growth and even after bringing into consideration all the increased unemployed we got fighting over the current surge in job openings.  That said, I don't care what they say, us Americans are simply not as well off as we were back in 2006.  The two big reasons are (ok y'all are way ahead of me here) the new jobs are low pay part time work.  This isn't party rhetoric.  OK, not just party rhetoric --thing is we had a huge surge in part time employment back in '09 and while it has in fact fallen back some w/ improving conditions we're still about double what we were before.   That and wage growth hit a brick wall back in '09 and left-wing America's war on business shows no sign of winding down. Bottom line, is that the Fed may still hike rates and as a consequensce investments will tank.  Or the Fed may catch on.  I can dream if I want to...

 

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Fed: Household net worth hits record $83 trillion in 4th quarter of 2014 http://www.cnbc.com/id/102500289

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102500289

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

[expat_panama]

Top 'o the marnin' to all!  After yesterday's solid gains w/ stocks and steady basing in metals we're now looking at solid gains w/ metals and steady basing in stocks (futures +0.3% metals & -0.07% stocks).  The end'o'week report flood's easing back w/ just PPI, Core PPI, and Mich Sentiment.  No worries --what could possibly happen on Friday the Thirteenth?

News-

U.S. 2015 profits forecast to grow 1.7 percent; oil, dollar are concerns Corporate America's profit engine may be running out of steam. Wall Street analysts, expecting two quarters of declining earnings, are banking on a second-half recovery to keep 2015 from becoming the worst year for profits since the last recession.
Asia stocks mostly gain as weak US retail sales undermine rate hike expectations Fox Business - 6 hours ago FILE - In this Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 file photo, a pedestrian walks past the New York Stock Exchange in New York. Financial stocks are leading an early gain in U.S.
Go Ahead, It's Perfectly OK to Bash the Fed - Ramesh Ponnuru, Bloomberg
What Does the Fed Mean? Be 'Patient' - James B. Stewart, New York Times

-- threads:

• U.S. household net worth posts biggest gain in a year
• Compare current president and past presidents using federal government economic data.
• Greece Passes Law To Plunder Pension Funds
• What Americans Think Is The #1 US Problem
• Retail sales slide for third month in a row
• Robert Reich: The 3 biggest myths plaguing the U.S. economy
• Working Class Gives Up On Obama, Fears Job Losses [opening for Republican Party]
• Could Scott Walker Be the Next Calvin Coolidge?

[expat_panama]

Household net worth hits record $83 trillion in 4th quarter of 2014

Seems like everyone's tootin' that tune!  It's all over the news wires like fleas on on a pooch but the dirty secret is it's bogus.  We were going over it on a related thread and the story is that the reasons the "total wealth of American families" is at an all time high is both inflation and the fact that the number of U.S. families is at an all time high.  Divide the total net worth by the number of Americans, adjust for inflation and you find that --

--for the past 8 years Americans are worse off.  They worked all those years, they not only have nothing to show for those years of work but they're worse off.

[grania]

There’s another reason total net worth is not impressive. It’s been established that wealth has concentrated upward. It’s entirely plausible that the top 15% (or so) of households have gotten wealthier, while the bottom tier of the economy (and it’s a very big tier) is close to 0% net worth, with no options to improve their situation.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Net worth is pretty variable anyway. Houses, cars even stocks are worth what you actually sell them for, not whatever some index says they are worth.

[expat_panama]

...wealth has concentrated upward...

--and we wouldn't want it any other way.  100% of America gets sick once in a while, but only 0.08% of Americans are doctors who get paid to heal the sick.   Everyone listens to music song by a tiny fraction of the population.  Most employees like to work 40 hours but there are a few who prefer to work 80 hours (while most of America doesn't work at all).

The fact that so few make so much is the way it should be.

[expat_panama]

Houses, cars even stocks are worth what you actually sell them for,

--and when you sell your house you can't use it.  Net worth is important to know about for managing wealth but it does not seriously mean that (as I incorrectly stated above) folks are somehow better or worse off.

[mad_as_he$$]

A lesson many never learn!

[abb]

...with no options to improve their situation.

That just ain't so. There is nowhere on Planet Earth where opportunity to better oneself is greater than in the U. S. A. It's been proved time and again. It's always amazed me how successful people who work hard, discipline themselves, and act morally, are said to be "lucky." Luck had nothing to do with it.

[grania]

It’s getting very, very difficult for people to pull themselves up. Granted, the most resourceful and motivated will do so. That doesn’t change the statistic. The vast majority of those mired in the bottom 40% (or so) of the population are finding their options narrowing. What’s needed is incentive to local small businesses and self-employment so people with ambition and skills can succeed. Now, all the taxes, rules, and regulations make that near-impossible.

[Wyatt's Torch]

EURUSD <1.05

[Wyatt's Torch]

With the dollar on an absolute rampage, I ask again: does the Fed need to tighten or is the market effectively doing that already?

[expat_panama]

EURUSD <1.05

How the mighty have fallen...

[expat_panama]

With the dollar on an absolute rampage, I ask again: does the Fed need to tighten...

Hold it!  The Fed has nothing to do w/ exchange rates.  The Fed is concerned with inflation. Inflation and exchange rates are unrelated, they have virtually nothing to do with each other.

[abb]

Sure is providing another opportunity to buy oil stocks at a better price.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Directly that is true. But if the dollar is strengthening it could cause (or be caused by) greater demand for dollars which is related to in/de-flation.tighten in a time of great demand for dollars and you cause deflation or at best disinflation.