The S&P 500 had its best day since April 2020 after new data indicated that inflation had cooled in October. The Dow Jones closed up nearly 1,200 points. Continue reading “Stock Market Soars After Report Signals Inflation Is Cooling”
Stock Market Closed Out 2021 With Strong Double-Digit Gains
On the first day of trading in the new year, stocks rose in afternoon trading on Wall Street Monday in a solid start to the new year after closing out 2021 with big gains including a 27% increase for the S&P 500. Continue reading “Stock Market Closed Out 2021 With Strong Double-Digit Gains”
Stock Market Performance During First 100 Days Of Presidents
From Axios:
Stockholdings by U.S. individual investors increased to 41% of their total financial assets in April — the highest level on record, The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription) from JPMorgan Chase and Fed data going back to 1952, including 401(k) retirement accounts:
“Financial advisers and money managers said their clients have grown more comfortable holding stocks as they witnessed the powerful rally over the past year, with some even questioning why they need bonds in their portfolios with yields still so low.”
You’ll recall Donald Trump often (and I mean OFTEN) pointed to the performance of the stock market as a measure of his ‘success’ as a president. Trump also claimed over and over again the market would tank if he lost the 2020 election. Well,… 
Economists Predict Post-Vaccine Boom As Economy Continues To Rebound
(image via Sharon McCutcheon/Unsplash)
The economy picked up speed last quarter, shaking off some of the lingering effects of the pandemic as consumer spending grew, bolstered by government stimulus checks and an easing of restrictions in many parts of the country.
The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the economy expanded 1.6 percent in the first three months of 2021, compared with 1.1 percent in the final quarter last year.
On an annualized basis, the first-quarter growth rate was 6.4 percent.
Over at Axios, Nicholas Johnston reports on a research note from Goldman Sachs (titled ‘Anatomy of a Boom’) that forecasts “more than 7% growth in 2021, a sustained pace not seen in more than 30 years.” According to the research note, economists post-vaccine hopes for an economic rebound are “changing from ‘from forecast to fact.'” You’ll recall during the presidential campaign last year, “the former guy” constantly told his followers the economy would tank if he wasn’t reelected. While the stock market isn’t “the economy,” check out these charts tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 for the past four months. 
News Round-Up: January 19, 2021
L-R Actor/model Nyle DiMarco and President-elect Joe Biden (image via Instagram)
• CNN: Donald Trump has reportedly been talked out of issuing presidential pardons for himself and his family as well as certain Republican lawmakers said to be nervous about their legal vulnerability for their part in the U.S. Capitol insurrection. • The Hill: From Trump’s inauguration day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose from 19,827 to 30,930 on Tuesday, a 56 percent increase. That increase is below the 73.2 percent rise the Dow saw in Obama’s first term, or the 105.8 percent increase under Clinton’s first term. A similar trend was true for the S&P 500, which gained 67.8 percent under Trump. It gained 84.5 percent in Obama’s first term, and 79.2 percent in Clinton’s first term. • LA Times: The 232-bed Vignes Street development has shattered the axiom that homeless housing takes years to build and is exorbitantly expensive. From start to finish in under five months and at a cost of about $200,000 per bed, it has shaved years and hundreds of thousands of dollars off a traditional homeless housing project. • White House: Donald Trump issued a pre-recorded farewell address today. #ByeGurl
News Round-Up: November 9, 2020
(image via Andrew Christian)
• NBC News: Georgia plans a recount of votes in its presidential race, but in the past 50 years, few recounts have led to changes in the winners. And in the handful of still-uncalled battleground states, there hasn’t been a flip following a recount in at least the last two decades. • Statista: As the presidential election results unfolded before the American people last week, the stock market saw the writing on the wall. The S&P 500 closed the week up 7.3 percent on Friday marking the best election week rally since 1928. The Nasdaq and Dow Jones saw similar gains. 
(graphic via Statista)
Watch Fox News cut away from Press Sec. McEnany: pic.twitter.com/SwW9cq9bJI
— The Recount (@therecount) November 9, 2020
Dow Jones Drops 900 Points As Coronavirus Spikes & Stimulus Talks Stall
Donald Trump (screen capture)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 900 points lower, or 3.2%, and was headed for its biggest one-day loss since June 11. The S&P 500 slid 2.7% and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 2.5%.
Monday’s decline erased the monthly gains for the Dow industrials.
The decline came amid a record surge in new coronavirus cases in the U.S. The country saw more than 83,000 new infections on both Friday and Saturday after outbreaks in Sun Belt states, surpassing a previous record of roughly 77,300 cases set in July, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The data also showed the country has reported an average of 68,767 cases per day over the past seven days, a record.
LATEST: The Dow Jones plunges 900+ points https://t.co/hxVPgsQquf pic.twitter.com/zOpRS0Yk1q
— Bloomberg (@business) October 26, 2020
Even Before COVID-19 Trump Did No Better On Economy Than Obama
L-R Former President Barack Obama, Donald Trump
• Employment: According to the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the economy created 6,979,000 jobs during Obama’s final three years in office. In Trump’s first three years through this past January, the economy added 6,585,000 jobs to a total of 158,714,000. That’s 394,000 fewer under Trump than under Obama during a similar time span.
• Economic growth: During Obama’s final three years, the economy (inflation-adjusted gross domestic product) grew 2.5% in 2014, 3.1% in 2015 and 1.7% in 2016, or an average of 2.43%, according to figures from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. Under Trump, the economy grew 2.3% in 2017, 3.0% in 2018 and 2.2% in 2019, for an average of 2.5% a year – just below one-tenth of a percent per year under Trump, who came into office promising to produce an economy that would sprint ahead at a 4% annual pace or even higher.
• Wage growth: During Obama’s final three years in office through January 2017, hourly earnings adjusted for inflation grew 3.3%, according to BLS figures. During Trump’s first three years, inflation-adjusted hourly earnings grew an identical 3.2%. • Stock market: During Trump’s presidency, the S&P 500 climbed 50.4%, from a close of 2,271.31 on Jan. 20, 2017, when he was inaugurated, to 3,4433.12 today. Under Obama, the S&P 500, which was 805.22 on Jan. 20, 2009, grew 182% during his presidency. During his second term, it grew 52% (from 1,492.56 on Jan. 22, 2013).
News Round-Up: March 20, 2020
Some news items you might have missed: • InstaHunks: Woofy Steve_in_LA (above) looks handsome as ever self-isolating in style as he works from home. • LGBTQ Nation: At least four LGBTQ people who were at the Winter Party – a huge circuit party held in Miami earlier this month – have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Other partiers have also developed symptoms. • CNBC: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 913 points lower, or more than 4%, after rallying more than 400 points earlier in the day. The S&P 500 slid 4.4%. The Nasdaq Composite closed 3.8% lower after jumping more than 2%. • KIT212: Kenneth’s weekly round-up of the what’s what in local gay rags like Scissor Sister’s lead singer Jake Shears in the latest issue of GRAB. 
• Washington Post: U.S. intelligence agencies were issuing ominous, classified warnings in January and February about the global danger posed by the coronavirus while President Trump and lawmakers played down the threat and failed to take action that might have slowed the spread of the pathogen, according to U.S. officials familiar with spy agency reporting. • CNN: Economists at Goldman Sachs predict next week’s unemployment report will show 2.25 million Americans filing for their first week of unemployment benefits this week — eight times the number of people who filed last week and the highest level on record. • New Music: Scottish singer/writer ONR (pronounced “honor”) shares new track and video “Human Enough,” the latest from his forthcoming Must Stop EP.
ONR says of the new track: “I liked the idea that ‘being human’ wasn’t a defining quality, but rather a sliding-scale… that you could consider yourself ’not human enough’ to be someone else’s equal. The video is dark, confused, frustrated; it exists within this fantastical alternative reality where the concept of being human is (literally) different from our own.”
Stocks Surge On Economic Stimulus News
(image via Pexels)
Stocks surged Tuesday — rebounding from their worst day in more than three decades — as Wall Street cheered White House plans that could inject $1 trillion into the U.S. economy to cushion the blow of the coronavirus.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1,048.79 points higher, or 5.2%, at 21,237.31. It briefly dipped below 20,000 for the first time since February 2017 before rebounding. The S&P 500 was up 6% at 2,529.19 while the Nasdaq Composite gained 6.2% to end the day at 7,334.78.
The Trump administration is weighing a fiscal stimulus package of more than $1 trillion that includes direct payments to Americans, according to a source familiar with the matter. Earlier, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters the government is considering directly sending checks to Americans in the next two weeks. “Americans need cash now,” he said.