And there's always some rhyme and reason-- here's today's professional version of blowing smoke up people's bums:
"Stocks gained after data showed the number of Americans applying for unemployment insurance fell last week to its lowest level since the early days of the 2007-2009 recession." (Reuters)
Wow! That's simply terrific.. Yay Government & Private Sector!
Oh course the recession Never Ended but.. you know..
AP Says, "The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to seasonally adjusted 324,000, the lowest since January 2008. The drop points to fewer layoffs and possibly more hiring."
Understand, that's not the number of people NEEDING unemployment assistance like the Millions who can't collect any more benefits... Or the number of people RECEIVING unemployment assistance now..
Nope.. It is SEEKING. As in, just recently got fired.. As in people who may have had employment a month ago.. or a week ago..
If only 230k private sector jobs have been created in the last two months, Federal and state governments aren't hiring and there's acknowledgment all around the entire global economy is in a slowdown, um.. one quickie Q...
Where are these magical jobs to come from?
So every day the market does something.. really one of five things: It goes up, down, Way UP, Way Down or finishes pretty much where it started.
And if a negative is too big to gloss over, it ends with 'the cavalry is coming' pitch i.e. 'The Fed will save the day folks.. no worries..'
For some 'fun', we thought we'd go back and look at how the stock market did over the last 5 business days starting at Friday, April 26th and more importantly focus on how the media explains it, doing so as concisely as we can...
Now the explanations:
"Stocks closed mixed in a quiet trading session on Friday. Investors were focused on numerous earnings reports during the day and a couple of economic reports that offered a mixed view of the economy.
The final revision to the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index came in well above consensus estimates, but was still down from March. Also, the advanced GDP report showed that the economy grew 2.5 percent in the first-quarter of 2013, but this was less than had been anticipated." (AP)
A bunch of gobbletygook nonsense-- Consumer sentiment continued its descent as less people felt confident a recovery was going to ever reach them and 2.5% GDP growth for a nation of this size is anemic at best.
Investors ignored all the negatives because Bernanke is pumping in that $85B in fresh money every month for they and banks to play with.
"A rally in U.S. stocks was sparked in part by better than expected consumer spending for March. Stocks closed off their best levels of the session, but all of the major averages recorded strong gains, including a near triple digit move in the Dow." (AP)
So the rats and roaches who trade and profit on Wall St knew about consumer confidence supposedly going up based on experts predictions (yet still really worse than March) and decided to wait until Monday to stage a rally?? Can you say 'bullshit'?
Truth is, whoever wrote the market wrap summary hadn't a clue why it went up but one can not keep a job with a news reporting outlet if you don't fill those empty columns with some words now and then.
"The U.S. stock market was resilient again on Tuesday. Stocks traded lower in early trade, before rising throughout the rest of the day to finish near session highs... Investors were heartened by a sharp rise in consumer confidence for April and a report which showed home prices continue to jump throughout much of the country." (AP)
Yes, that's not a typo-- the same empty consumer confidence survey was used to explain away not one or two, but THREE straight trading days!
Most people don't read the summary reports and if they do, its instantly forgotten. All that matters to Ma & Pa trader is the market goes up and any rhyme or reason will do..even the same reason over n over n over..
"The U.S. stock market was hit hard on Wednesday as investors reacted to a report which showed slowing employment conditions for the month of April. The losses were also likely amplified by profit taking as the Dow and S&P have been hovering near record highs in recent days." (AP)
Utter gloss over! No mention of the putrid job growth in the public sector... No acknowledgment the economy is at worst, slowly collapsing and at best, in a meandering rut. Nope.. that 135pt drop was due to 'profit taking'.. That's 'good'..
'See boys and girls, there's Sooo Much Profit to be made in the Stock Market that 135pt drops are nothing...'
And today, 5/2 as of 11am-- A manipulative report mentioned a reduction in those newly unemployed seeking assistance and the ECB copying a page from the Fed by lowering interest rates even more which kills European savers but helps their insolvent Banks (they can lend to each other and borrow from the ECB cheaper) and Investors greatly.
Truth is, most of the time there's no sincere reason it goes up beyond Federal Reserve manipulation, impressive quarterly dividends from a company or sector or a big merger & acquisition between companies.
And when the market goes down, its severity is always minimized.
The day you ever read or hear the word 'Sell!' in finance media, is the day it hits pre-Reagan levels i.e. Dow 1000, and even then, we wouldn't hold our breath.
Wall Street-- an evil business run by evil people with evil in their hearts looking to make as much money as possible while separating you from your wealth.
