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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 5:57:09 GMT
Dec 21, 2018 at 4:52pm "S&P 500 index, already on pace for its biggest percentage decline in December since the Great Depression..." No doubt -- a prolonged Govt shutdown as the Commander in Chaos tweeted this A.M. should help cure the market jitters. The Trump Economy is taking hold! Trickle down always equals asset bubbles in the short term then the artificial bubble bursts. Then Chaos, Bear Markets, Recessions and Depressions Follow. Then Dem’s are elected to clean up the Republican Mess again. History always repeats itself.
Meanwhile, the wealthy got the tax reduction they wanted (as they did under GWB and GHWB and Reagan) and the suffering middle class gets to pay for it with job losses, foreclosures, debt not covered by bankruptcy, wage cuts & furloughs if they are lucky enough to even have a job, etc. And the clueless right wing who continually put these global elite (free market corporatists) shills into congress (under the guise of "conservatism") remain clueless.
I have been saying for months "get out of the stock market" if you are the average Joe. The wealthy have already been quietly getting out. Once they have robbed the wealth and abscond the only thing holding things up will be the average Joe and then the trap door opens. Wall Street suffers worst week in a decade as economic worries mountReuters April Joyner,Reuters 1 hour 30 minutes ago .
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks fell in volatile trading on Friday, with the Nasdaq confirming it is in a bear market, as concerns of slowing economic growth led investors to flee stocks in high-valuation sectors such as technology and communication services.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq sank to a 15-month low, falling as much as 21.5 percent from its Aug. 29 high. The benchmark S&P 500 index, already on pace for its biggest percentage decline in December since the Great Depression, hit its lowest level since August 2017. The Dow Industrials fell to the lowest level since October 2017.
All three indexes swung between losses and gains of more than 1 percent. They received a momentary boost after New York Fed President John Williams said on CNBC that the Fed is open to reassessing its views and monitoring market signals that economic growth could fall short of expectations.
But those gains soon evaporated as economic worries again prevailed. Williams' dovish comments could point to hidden concerns among some Fed policymakers, said Tim Ghriskey, investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.
"(Williams' comments) helped the markets for a while early on, and then it was just a sell-off after that," Ghriskey said. "Part of that is when the Fed says something like they're re-looking at things, there's a concern that maybe the Fed knows something that we don't know."
Technology <.SPLRCT> and communication services <.SPLRCL> stocks bore the brunt of the sell-off, falling 2.3 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.
The FAANG group of momentum stocks fared poorly. Facebook Inc shares tumbled 5.4 percent, Amazon.com Inc shares slid 4.8 percent and Netflix Inc shares sank 5.0 percent. Shares of both Apple Inc and Google parent Alphabet Inc dropped more than 2 percent.
Turmoil in Washington injected further pessimism into U.S. stock markets. President Donald Trump said there was a very good chance a government funding bill, which included funding for a wall along Mexico border, would not pass the Senate.
"The market continues to react to the possibility of a government shutdown, fear of a domestic and global slowdown and general displeasure about the direction of Fed policy," said Ryan Larson, head of U.S. equity trading at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> fell 271.91 points, or 1.19 percent, to 22,587.69, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 34.61 points, or 1.40 percent, to 2,432.81 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 154.57 points, or 2.37 percent, to 6,373.84.
For the second day in a row, more than 2,000 New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq-listed stocks hit 52-week lows. The day before, nearly 3,000 stocks hit their low for the year, the most in any one day since October 2008.
The three indexes are already in a correction, having fallen more than 10 percent from their record closing highs. The Nasdaq confirmed it is in a bear market, which is marked when an index closes more than 20 percent below its recent closing high.
Adding to volatility was "quadruple-witching," when options on stocks and indexes as well as futures on indexes and stocks expire. Trading volume is often high on "quadruple-witching" days.
Among Wall Street's advancers were shares of Nike Inc , which jumped 7.5 percent after the company's quarterly results beat Wall Street estimates on strength in North America.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.48-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.14-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and 115 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded five new highs and 732 new lows.
(Reporting by April Joyner; Additional reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Nick Zieminski)
www.yahoo.com/news/wall-street-suffers-worst-week-211832776.html
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 5:58:42 GMT
GET OUT OF THE STOCK MARKET NOW!!! Put your money into a safe place for the moment (money market) (cash) until it is safe to go back into the water.
Some "not so good things" are brewing. If you are within 10 years of retirement I would be very very worried and cautious.
When the market crashes with YOUR money watch how fast your broker leaves town only to be replaced by another company person that had to leave their town. That is often how the game is played.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 5:59:25 GMT
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Spent His Weekend Calling Top Bank Execs Post ShutdownHuffPost David Barden,HuffPost 1 hour 51 minutes ago
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin confirmed that he called the heads of the six largest U.S. banks following a tumultuous week that saw a dive in the stock market and partial government shutdown.
In a statement posted to Twitter on Sunday, Mnuchin said that each of the CEOs “confirmed they have ample liquidity for lending to consumer, business markets and all other market operations.”
Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s incoming acting chief of staff, on Sunday predicted the shutdown could continue into 2019.
Mnuchin said during the shutdown, the Treasury “will have critical employees to maintain its core operations.”
“We continue to see strong economic growth in the U.S. economy with robust activity from consumers and business,” Mnuchin said. “With the government shutdown, Treasury will have critical employees to maintain its core operations at Fiscal Services, IRS, and other critical functions within the department.”
The treasury secretary spent some of his weekend attempting to reassure financial markets, particularly after reports surfaced that Trump was considering ousting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Despite his best efforts, Twitter users aren’t buying Mnuchin’s assurances that everything is fine.
www.yahoo.com/news/treasury-secretary-mnuchin-spent-weekend-020356443.html This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:00:16 GMT
GET OUT OF THE STOCK MARKET NOW!!! Put your money into a safe place for the moment (money market) (cash) until it is safe to go back into the water.
Some "not so good things" are brewing. If you are within 10 years of retirement I would be very very worried and cautious.
When the market crashes with YOUR money watch how fast your broker leaves town only to be replaced by another company person that had to leave their town. That is often how the game is played. Trump 'all alone' on Christmas Eve; Stock market sees historic declineDow dives 653 points to below 22,000, S&P 500 enters bear market -- worst Christmas Eve everMichael Sheetz and John Melloy 15 hrs ago
U.S. stocks plunged on Monday in their worst Christmas Eve trading ever, as the S&P 500 entered a bear market.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 653 points Monday in volatile trading, falling below 22,000. The Dow sank more than 2 percent, then recovered nearly all of the day’s losses, before again falling more than 2 percent. The S&P 500 fell 2.7 percent, slipping into a bear market as it fell 20.06 percent from recent highs. Wall Street traditionally considers a drop of 20 percent or more from recent highs to be a bear market. The Nasdaq Composite Index slid 2.2 percent.
Markets responded to turmoil in Washington. Multiple reports said President Donald Trump is discussing how to remove Jerome Powell from his position as chairman of the Federal Reserve. That discussion, as well as the recent market volatility, spurred Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to call the leaders of the six largest U.S. banks over the weekend. Additionally, Defense Secretary James Mattis announced he would step down at the end of February, saying his views do not align with the president’s.
Trump resumed his attack on the Fed on Monday, tweeting that the central bank is “the only problem” with the U.S. economy.
“They don’t have a feel for the Market,” Trump said in the tweet.
All 11 sectors of the S&P 500 are now negative for December, the fourth quarter and the full year.
Last week the Dow lost 1,655 points, or 6.8 percent. That was the Dow’s worst week of trading since October 2008 during the financial crisis. The S&P 500 also lost 7 percent for the week. The Nasdaq Composite is now 22 percent below its record reached in August and is in a bear market.
Stocks temporarily climbed off their lows after billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper told CNBC that he’s buying some stocks following the market’s move lower. CNBC’s Scott Wapner says that Tepper told him that “it’s still a tough market,” so you’ve “got to be careful about your exposure.”
“The key question is whether the market of stellar returns is going to a market of slow or stalling returns,” Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, told CNBC.
“This is a market selling off as if it believes that we are headed in to a stall. Exacerbating that is the thesis that the Federal Reserve’s policies are leading us to a hard landing, rather than a soft landing,” Krosby said.
Last Wednesday, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for a fourth time this year and Chairman Jerome Powell signaled the central bank would continue to unwind its balance sheet at the current pace. The two monetary tightening actions are driving the stock market declines, traders say.
There was a report late Friday that President Donald Trump was discussing the possibility of firing Powell, a move that could undermine confidence in the U.S. financial system. Other media outlets later confirmed those reports, but Mnuchin sought to from those reports this weekend. A senior Treasury official acknowledged that the reports about Trump’s discussion of firing Powell was part of the catalyst for Mnuchin’s call but not the sole reason.
Mnuchin tweeted that he spoke with the president. Mnuchin declared that Trump said he never suggested firing Powell and doesn’t believe he has the right to do so.
Mnuchin held calls on Sunday with the heads of the six largest U.S. banks in order to reassure nervous investors that the financial markets and economy were functioning properly.
“The banks all confirmed ample liquidity is available for lending to consumer and business markets,” the statement from the Treasury said.
“We continue to see strong economic growth in the U.S. economy with robust activity from consumers and business,” said Mnuchin added in the statement on Sunday. A senior Treasury official told CNBC on Monday that the purpose of Mnuchin’s call and statement was to take a “prudent, preemptive measure” after last week’s market volatility.
Wall Street is processing Mnuchin’s call, which seems “to raise more questions than answers,” Raymond James analyst Ed Mills said in a note. Mills thinks it is unclear why the Treasury secretary hosted the call, “as no one had seemed to raise any concerns related to these issues of which Mnuchin is seeking to reassure the market,” Mills said.
December is typically a buoyant month for stocks. Yet both the Dow and S&P 500 are down more than 14 percent this month -- on track for their worst December performances since the Great Depression in 1931.
Oppenheimer equity analyst John Stoltzfus said in a note Monday that “putting the recent equity market declines into historical context lessens their sting.” The three catalysts which pushed the market lower in 2015 and 2016 -- China, the Federal Reserve, and oil -- are roiling “the market yet again in 2018,” Stoltzfus said.
“I think there’s a massive gap between sentiment and fundamentals” for the market, Blackstone investment strategist Joe Zidle said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“If the market closes down for the year, which looks likely … it will only be the 13th time that we’ve seen a full year decline since 1960,” Zidle said. Of those 13 full year declines in the past 58 years, seven occurred before or during a recession.
“The markets are saying there’s a greater than 50 percent chance we enter a recession and fundamentals don’t support it and fundamentals win,” Zidle said.
Also weighing on investor confidence is a government shutdown that on through at least Thursday.
Both the Dow and the S&P 500 are now in the red for 2018 by more than 10 percent. Some traders have suggested that the market has gotten to the point where a short-term bounce could occur, if only for technical reasons. Seasonally, this is usually a positive, or at least benign, time for the markets.
The next worst Christmas Eve for the Dow and S&P 500 was in 1985, when both indexes fell a little over 0.6 percent.
The NYSE closes early on Monday at 1 p.m. ET. The exchange is closed on Tuesday for Christmas day. Wednesday through Friday are normal trading days.
www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/dow-dives-653-points-to-below-22000-sandp-500-enters-bear-market-worst-christmas-eve-ever/ar-BBRmC0r
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:01:15 GMT
You ain't seen nothing yet. Wait until after TAX DAY in April when people wake up to the great republiconservative middle class tax scam for the wealthy finally kicks in. Maybe then and only then will Americans wake up to what that global corporatist elite controlled party and their conservative shills are all about. Then again, it didn't phase too many brains when these same people crashed the economy in 2008 OR when they did it in 1987 OR 1929.
www.takeoverworld.info/overclass.html and www.takeoverworld.info/conservatism.htm
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:02:00 GMT
Still headed into a bear market no matter which way you look at it by all indications. This often happens in a bear market so expect some more ups and downs. Watch the big picture. And there is a glut of oil making that commodity bounce.Dow notches record point surge in dramatic reboundReuters Lewis Krauskopf,Reuters 8 hours ago
(Reuters) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged at least 1,000 points in a single session for the first time on Wednesday in a broad stock rebound after the benchmark S&P 500 index was on the brink of a bear market.
The three major U.S. indexes all posted their biggest one-day percentage gains since March 2009, in the first day of trading following the Christmas holiday, when the market was closed.
Sales in the 2018 U.S. holiday shopping season rose 5.1 percent to over $850 billion, the strongest in six years, according to a Mastercard report. The S&P 500 retailing index <.SPXRT> jumped 7.4 percent, while shares of online retailer Amazon , which touted a "record-breaking" season, climbed 9.4 percent.
Oil prices also surged, boosting sentiment for risk assets such as stocks, while underpinning a 6.2 percent gain for energy shares <.SPNY>.
Stocks found their footing after wobbling in morning trade. The S&P 500 came within 2 points of falling 20 percent from its late-September closing high, a threshold commonly used to define a bear market.
"The market is extremely oversold where we left it" on Monday, said Brett Ewing, chief market strategist at First Franklin Financial Services in Tallahassee, Florida.
"You cannot make the assumption that this correction is over, but today's action is definitely a very positive signal."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 1,086.25 points, or 4.98 percent, to 22,878.45, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 116.6 points, or 4.96 percent, to 2,467.7 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 361.44 points, or 5.84 percent, to 6,554.36.
The previous record point gain for the Dow was 936.42 on Oct. 13, 2008, when markets were whipsawed almost daily by developments in the financial crisis, which was then in full swing. Over the two sessions following that gain, the Dow dropped more than 800 points.
(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York, additional reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Anil D'Silva, Rosalba O'Brien and Jonathan Oatis)
www.yahoo.com/news/dow-surges-over-1-000-211150785.html
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:02:48 GMT
Stocks end the year down, suffering worst decline since 2008BY AIMEE PICCHI UPDATED ON: DECEMBER 31, 2018 / 4:57 PM / MONEYWATCH Stocks ended the year in the red, a downturn not seen since the height of the financial crisis a decade ago. The market gyrations have left investors both poorer and apprehensive about what's to come, with some analysts questioning whether 2019 could usher in a "bear" market or even another recession. The year concluded in an almost polar-opposite mood to the frothy optimism of early 2018, when President Donald Trump's tax cut was projected to boost consumer spending, supercharge corporate profits and burnish investor portfolios. When the Dow jumped 5 percent in January, Mr. Trump touted his policies' impact on the market and broader U.S. economy. A year later, how things have changed. The Dow ended 2018 with a loss of 5.6 percent. The S&P 500 shed 6.2 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 3.9 percent. The market sell-off started in October amid heightened fears about Mr. Trump's trade war with China and the Federal Reserve moving to gradually raise interest rates to keep the economy from overheating. The latter led to a series of blistering attacks by the president on Fed chairman Jerome Powell, whom Mr. Trump accused of roiling markets. On top of those worries, investors are also fretting about a slowdown in U.S. and global growth, America's ongoing government shutdown and even the risk of a possible recession. "These issues have given market participants too much uncertainty to shrug off," John Lynch, chief investment strategist at LPL Financial, wrote in a research note. It's no wonder investors fear they're witnessing the end of a decade of economic growth and soaring market gains, according to a separate LPL Research analysis. "Threatening issues such as trade, monetary policy or global politics" could result in continued volatility, the financial firm cautioned. Here's how 2018 stacks up, and what experts predict for the market in 2019. $15 trillion in lost weaLthThe global equity markets had shed $15 trillion between a peak on Jan. 28 and early December, according to a calculation from Bloomberg. Stocks across the globe suffered amid concerns about economic growth and trade tensions between the world's economic superpowers, the U.S. and China. Among the biggest losers are tech companies like Apple, where concerns about the trade war with China and slowing consumer spending are weighing on formerly high-flying stocks. 9 of 10 asset classes lost moneyAlmost all asset classes lost money in 2018, according to a Deutsche Bank analysis. Major global markets are in retreat, as well as commodities like crude oil and gold. "2018 was a challenging year for fixed income, with only cash alternatives and shorter-maturity securities showing positive year-to-date returns," Peter Wilson, global fixed income strategist at Wells Fargo, said in a report. A near-bear market in U.S.The S&P 500 index sank 19.8 percent from its Sept. 20 peak through Christmas eve, putting it a hairbreath away from bear territory, or when a market falls 20 percent from its most recent high. "Should the S&P 500 end the month where it closed on Christmas Eve, December would mark the third-worst month ever for stocks, behind only October 1987 (-21.8 percent) and October 2008 (-16.9 percent)," John Lynch, chief investment strategist at LPL Financial, wrote in a note. But China's even worseTo put it into perspective for U.S. investors, the markets in China suffered far worse in 2018. China's benchmark index, the CSI 300, shed 26 percent of its value during the year amid concerns about slowing economic growth and the impact of its trade war with the U.S. 2018's gains mostly went to ...Some investors pulled ahead in 2018, but only those who, in the immortal words of TV host Robin Leach, enjoyed champagne wishes and caviar dreams. Investors in high-end wine and other luxury assets enjoyed a positive return on their investments. Fine wine returned 10.3 percent this year, according to the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000, an index that tracks 1,000 expensive vintages. Will recession strike?Despite the market rout, economists and Wall Street analysts stress that the U.S. economy remains solid, lessening the risk of a near-term recession. "The good news is that we feel confident that the U.S. economy will NOT fall into recession," Bruce A. Bittles, chief investment strategist at Baird, told clients. "This is important because a cyclical bear market historically produces a decline of 25 percent from top to bottom on average. A recession would likely cause significantly more damage." Previous recessions were sparked mosty by one of two issues, an overheating of the labor market accompanied by a spike in inflation or a financial deficit in the private sector, such as the 2008 housing crisis, noted Goldman Sachs' analysts. But neither of those issues appear to be looming, they noted. What's next for stocksOpinions are mixed on where markets are headed next year. "Don't bank on the U.S. stock market recovering in 2019," warned Capital Economics earlier this month, citing the potential for slower economic growth. Others are more sanguine, highlighting low U.S. unemployment, strong consumer spending and healthy corporate profits. "There are plenty of potential catalysts to push stocks higher," LPL's John Lynch noted. "We're already down about as much as we have historically seen during a typical non-recessionary bear market, which is what we think this is." 2019: What the pros adviseEven as stocks whipsaw from day to the next, investment advisers agree on one thing: Don't panic. Bailing out of the market can mean missing out on sharp gains, such as December 27's historic rise of more than 1,000 points for the Dow. Still, investors may want to rebalance their portfolios regularly, especially for investors who may have a larger equity allocation than they had planned after the decade-long bull market, Wells Fargo said. "We understand that experiencing market declines—or the frequent ups and downs we saw at the end of 2018—can be unnerving for any investor," LPL said. "These can be the hardest times to remember that volatility does not necessarily mean that the bull market is over or that a recession is looming, and that it is in fact a normal part of investing." www.cbsnews.com/news/stocks-down-end-of-year-2018-worst-year-since-2008-recession/
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:03:33 GMT
And it's worth noting (although it shouldn't be all that hard to) that the two big downturns, in 2008 and 2018, have happened under idiot Republican presidential administrations. This doesn't seem to happen when there's a Democrat in charge. pg3
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:31:28 GMT
When Trump was campaigning in 2016 he called the market in a bubble; when elected and the market continued up, he took credit for the rise and now when the market declines it's someone else's fault.Trump: December's stock market fall a 'glitch'Reuters By Jeff Mason and Lisa Lambert,Reuters 12 hours ago
By Jeff Mason and Lisa Lambert
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the stock market's drop at the end of 2018, calling it a "glitch" and saying the market will again go up once various trade deals are settled.
Trump, who has repeatedly posted messages on Twitter extolling stock market gains, said the Federal Reserve should help keep markets stable.
"We had a little glitch in the stock market last month," he told reporters at a Cabinet meeting, adding that it had risen since he was elected at the end of 2016. "And it's going to go up once we settle trade issues, and once a couple of other things happen."
"We need a little help from the Fed ... but we're going to be good. The trade deals are kicking in," he added later.
Trump in the final months of 2018 repeatedly attacked the Fed, blaming market volatility on the central bank's steady and gradual interest-rate increases and calling it the "only problem" for the U.S. economy.
The Fed has a dual mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices.
U.S. stocks in 2018 had their worst year in a decade, heavily driven by steep price drops in the last quarter.
On Wednesday, the first trading day of 2019, stocks stumbled on investor fears over a global economic slowdown.[.N] Fears were fuelled by reports that factory activity weakened across much of Europe and Asia in December due to the U.S.-China trade war.
Trump at the cabinet meeting sounded upbeat about negotiations to reach a trade deal with China, saying they "are coming along very well, we'll see what happens."
The United States and China are about one month into a 90-day pause in implementing higher U.S. tariffs and other measures in a trade war that dominated much of 2018, as they work on reaching a deal.
In addition, the U.S. trade deal with Canada and Mexico awaits congressional approval.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Lisa Lambert; Editing by James Dalgleish and Leslie Adler)
www.yahoo.com/finance/news/trump-says-trade-negotiations-china-coming-along-very-175514425--business.html
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:46:32 GMT
Trump inherited a good, sound economy from Obama on which to build. Obama inherited a horrible economy and wisely decided against austerity even though it did increase the national debt. So what is Trump's excuse? Nothing like a big talker. We all know the Republiconservative TAX CUT GIVEAWAY to the wealthy and well connected is the reason. We have a REAL PROBLEM in this country when half the population (CONSERVATIVES) believe this trickle down nonsense that has robbed and decimated the middle class since they instituted Friedmanomics since Reagan.US national debt has increased $2 trillion since Donald Trump took office, new data showsPresident reportedly not concerned because 'I won't be there'Andrew Buncombe Seattle @andrewbuncombe 2 days ago
The US national debt has increased by more than $2 trillion dollars since Donald Trump entered the White House, according to new data.
Figures released by the Treasury Department showed the debt stood at $21.974 trillion at the end of 2018, more than $2 trillion higher than when Mr Trump took office.
The debt stood represented 78 per cent of the US’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the fiscal year 2018, the highest percentage since 1950, analysis by CNN concluded.
The deficit, which measures the difference between what the government spends and what it collects, rose to 3.8 per cent of GDP in 2018, up from 3.5 per cent in 2017.
The national debt has been rising in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, when Congress and Barack Obama approved stimulus funding in order to keep the economy afloat.
When Mr Trump first took office, having vowed to reduce it to zero in eight years it, it began to go down.
But analysts say it started to increase again as a result of a Republican tax cut, passed at the end of 2017, that a represented the largest of its kind in a generation.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, debt could grow to 96 per cent of GDP (or $29 trillion) by 2028.
“Three decades from now, for instance, debt held by the public is projected to be about twice as high in relation to GDP as it is this year—which would be a higher ratio than the United States has ever recorded,” it said in a new report.
“Such high and rising debt would have serious consequences, both for the economy and for the federal budget. Federal spending on interest payments would rise substantially as a result of increases in interest rates, such as those projected to occur over the next few years.”
When he was campaigning for the White House, Mr Trump said he believed he could make the US debt free within eight years.
“I think I could do it fairly quickly,” he told The Washington Post.
To address the debt, Mr Trump in October announced an initiative to cut spending by five per cent across the various departments of his cabinet.
However, last year the Daily Beast website reported the president had privately expressed little concern about the numbers because “I won’t be here”.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-national-debt-2-trillion-donald-trump-presidency-deficit-treasury-congressional-budget-office-a8710546.html The Origin Of 'The World's Dumbest Idea': Milton Friedmanwww.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2013/06/26/the-origin-of-the-worlds-dumbest-idea-milton-friedman/#7c90968c870e
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:47:46 GMT
Let's hope the new Democratic congress is not about to bail out any of these crony capitalistic corporations, banks or Wall Street when Republicons crash the economy again. The republiconservative scam of free market free trade INSTEAD of FAIR TRADE pushed our manufacturers OUT of the country and made for some very wealthy 1%ers.The market is about to get bad news from corporate America Myles Udland 9 hours ago
Fourth quarter earnings season is upon us.
In the week ahead, earnings from major U.S. banks for the final quarter of the year will begin rolling in with key reports also expected from across industries.
But if the news we’ve already heard from some big U.S. corporates about the final months of 2018 and the road ahead for the global economy are any indication, the weeks ahead are not going to be encouraging.
In late 2018, FedEx (FDX) gave investors the first major indication of troubles about the global economy, with company management saying its international business had “weakened significantly since we last talked with you during our earnings call in September.” Adding that, “China's economy has weakened due in part to trade disputes.” FedEx cut its outlook for 2019 as a result.
On January 2, Apple (AAPL) shocked markets when it said sales for its holiday quarter would sharply miss expectations. CEO Tim Cook mentioned China 11 times in a letter to investors published, writing in part, “While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China.”
The following day, the Dow dropped 660 points and the Nasdaq fell 3%.
A trade-in for iPhone XR promotion board is displayed as an Apple employee waits for customer at its retail store in Beijing, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Apple Inc.’s $1,000 iPhone is a tough sell to Chinese consumers who are jittery over an economic slump and a trade war with Washington. The tech giant became the latest global company to collide with Chinese consumer anxiety when CEO Tim Cook said iPhone demand is waning, due mostly to China. Weak consumer demand in the world’s second-largest economy is a blow to industries from autos to designer clothing that are counting on China to drive revenue growth. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
A trade-in for iPhone XR promotion board is displayed as an Apple employee waits for customer at its retail store in Beijing, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2019. Apple Inc.’s $1,000 iPhone is a tough sell to Chinese consumers who are jittery over an economic slump and a trade war with Washington. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Last week, the S&P 500 finished higher in four out of five sessions, giving investors perhaps some sense of reprieve after the brutal trading that capped 2018. During the week, however, corporate America offered investors a message less in-line with how the market behaved and more in-line with what Apple said the prior week.
Retailers Macy’s (M) and Kohl’s (KSS) both provided disappointing preliminary looks at the holiday period, as did apparel company L Brands (LB). Target (TGT), however, reported same-store sales that topped expectations for the holiday period. Additionally, two major airlines — Delta (DAL) and American Airlines (AAL) — cut their forecasts.
This batch of bad news, however, mostly concerned the U.S. economy. In the earnings season ahead, Apple’s warning about the Chinese economy seems likely to be the most common source of disappointing results.
This past week, Goldman Sachs analysts downgraded shares of Starbucks (SBUX) citing concerns about the Chinese economy, while Reuters reported that Beijing will cut its target growth rate for 2019.
And this coming week, industrial coatings giants PPG (PPG) is set to report results. And though PPG’s earnings report may often go unnoticed by the broader market, the company back flagged a number of concerns about the global economy back in October that we urged investors to note at the time.
Because although Fed policy and the economic situation in the U.S. is part of the basket of potential worries for investors, nothing hurts markets more than the trade war.
Overall, the fourth quarter is still shaping up to be fairly robust for corporate profits, with fourth quarter earnings reports from S&P 500 members so far indicating earnings growth north of 10% for the final quarter of the year. Markets, however, are more interested in what will happen to earnings growth than what has.
And while the stock market decline we saw during the final months of 2018 was certainly in anticipation of some negative news for companies about 2019, the weeks ahead will reveal just how much disappointment investors are ready to endure as we begin a new phase for the global economy.
www.yahoo.com/finance/news/q4-earnings-season-preview-news-priced-in-163705017.html
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:48:33 GMT
Research details the 'rapid increase in homelessness' in certain U.S. cities Adriana Belmonte 7 hours ago
Across some of the biggest U.S. cities, rent prices are continuing to rise for lower-income Americans. Meanwhile, an estimated 553,000 people experienced homelessness in 2018, according to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) data.
And a recent Zillow study — which estimated the number of homeless people in America to be closer to 661,000 — found a specific correlation between rent affordability and the rate of homelessness at a certain threshold: “Communities where people spend more than 32 percent of their income on rent can expect a more rapid increase in homelessness.”
Alexander Casey, a policy advisor on Zillow’s Economic Research team, explained to Yahoo Finance that “15% of the U.S. population lives in areas where a staggering 47% of the homeless population lives. And these are areas where rents are 29% higher on average than the rest of the U.S. And most of these communities are already past this 32% tipping point.”
New York City, Los Angeles, and Seattle stand apart Zillow researchers clustered different communities together based on “how they’re experiencing rising poverty rates, existing homelessness, homelessness rates, and declining affordability.” The places where people are most at risk of homelessness, according to the study, included New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Boston, “which all have crossed the 32 percent affordability threshold.”
The three U.S. cities with the most homeless people in 2018 were New York (78,676), Los Angeles (49,955), and Seattle (12,112), according to the most recent HUD data. A 2016 Wall Street Journal report highlighted that while overall homelessness in America was declining, the homeless population in these cities and others had risen rapidly since 2010.
Fashionistas pose for photographs in front of a homeless man outside Moynihan Station following a showing of the Rag & Bone Spring/Summer 2013 collection during New York Fashion Week September 7, 2012. (Photo: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
“We attribute a great majority of homelessness to rent affordability,” Megan Hustings, interim director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, told Yahoo Finance. She added that gentrification plays a big role in it, along with public housing developments in urban areas being torn down and the overall “continuous decline of affordable housing units.”
In June 2018, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) received widespread criticism after an Associated Press analysis found that a proposed HUD plan would raise the rent of low-income tenants by about 20%. (Due to the ongoing government shutdown, HUD could not be reached for comment about public housing developments.)
High rent in America is a fact of life these days “We’ve seen rent rising,” Casey said. “Why is that? Can we disentangle that? You start to realize the story of rent affordability and homelessness doesn’t read the same in every single community.”
Over the last five years, the U.S. median rent has risen 11%. As a result, renters earning the national median income have spent 28.2% of their earnings on a rental. According to Zillow, that is significantly “above the 17.7% that median-income households buying a typical home today spend on their monthly mortgage payment.”
When rent affordability exceeds 22%, according to the study, that leads to more people in that community experiencing homelessness. And any increase in rent affordability beyond 32% “leads to a faster-rising rate of homelessness — which could mean a homelessness crisis, unless there are mitigating factors within a community,” Zillow reported.
A good example, according to Casey, is in Houston, Texas. The researchers looked at trends in the city’s rising rent prices and chronic high poverty rates.
High rent in America can be relative to individual cities. (Photo: Courtesy of Zillow)
“You see that homelessness rates are significantly lower to similar peer communities in Houston,” Casey said. “The model helps identify Houston as an example as a place of: ‘Here’s other peer communities where national policy folks might want to start to look to see what lessons can be learned. What kind of policies are they implementing?’”
According to National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)’s Out of Reach 2018 report, a full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 “needs to work approximately 122 hours per week for all 52 weeks of the year, or approximately three full-time jobs, to afford a two-bedroom rental home at the national average fair market rent.”
And, the report stated, in no state “can a worker earning the federal minimum wage or prevailing state minimum wage afford a two-bedroom rental home at fair market rent by working a standard 40-hour week.”
more: www.yahoo.com/finance/news/research-details-rapid-increase-homelessness-certain-u-s-cities-190205600.html
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:49:30 GMT
Trump's Economy is Great for Billionaires, Bad for Working People
Senator Bernie Sanders Published on Jan 17, 2019 Under Trump, the economy is “absolutely booming”—for the billionaire class and corporate America. But for working families, the economy is not doing so great. It’s time to build an economy that works for all people, not just the 1 percent.www.youtube.com/channel/UCD_DaKNac0Ta-2PeHuoQ1uA
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:50:12 GMT
IMF serves up depressing new outlook on the world for investors to ponderYahoo Finance Brian Sozzi,Yahoo Finance 13 hours ago
The International Monetary Fund just uncorked a sobering outlook on the global economy and asset markets for the elite billionaires huddled up in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum to ponder.
In its latest World Economic Update report, the IMF said Monday the global economy is projected to grow at a meager 3.5% this year and only accelerate to 3.6% in 2020. The outlooks for 2019 and 2020 are 0.2 percentage point and 0.1 percentage point below the IMF’s projections issued in October.
Hat tips to the ongoing U.S. trade war with China, tightening financial conditions globally and more volatile risk asset markets.
The finer points: The IMF pretty much had nothing good to say on the outlooks for developed and emerging markets. Although that is nothing unusual for the IMF — who often takes a cautious stance on its outlooks for economies and financial markets — it may give many investors a wake up call amid a somewhat hot start to the stock market in 2019.
Of note, U.S. growth is seen slowing to 2.5% in 2019 and dipping to 1.9% in 2020 at the hands of the unwinding of fiscal stimulus (see Trump tax cuts), higher interest rates and the U.S. trade war with China. The IMF tossed the U.S. a bone by noting the pace of expansion is above the country’s estimated potential growth in both years.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde gives a press conference on IMF World Economic Outlook ahead of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting on January 21, 2019 in Davos, eastern Switzerland. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo credit should read FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)
As for Europe, the IMF is now more bearish on growth compared to its October outlook. Growth for emerging and developing Europe in 2019 is forecast to cool to 0.7% (from 3.8% in 2018) and then bounce to 2.4% in 2020. Previously, the IMF was looking for growth of 2% and 2.8% in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Lackluster growth in Italy, France and Germany as well as policy tightening in Turkey are the main culprits for the IMF’s European growth downgrade.
Growth in emerging and developing Asia is expected to drop from 6.5% in 2018 to 6.3% in 2019 and reach 6.4% in 2020, said the IMF. The IMF expects growth in China to be 6.2% both in 2019 and 2020 versus 6.6% in 2018.
Interestingly, the IMF incorporates the impact of continued tariffs by the U.S. on China and vice versa in its baseline forecast. In other words, the organization does not expect there to be a trade truce between the countries on their self-imposed March 1 deadline.
For the investors out there: For those bulls that have returned to beaten up stocks in January, the IMF does its best to squash the hopium infiltrating your brains. “A range of catalyzing events in key systemic economies could spark a broader deterioration in investor sentiment and a sudden, sharp repricing of assets amid elevated debt burdens. Global growth would likely fall short of the baseline projection if any such events were to materialize and trigger a generalized risk-off episode,” cautioned the IMF.
China’s growth slowdown is also a risk that the IMF suggests investors don’t fully appreciate.
“As seen in 2015–16, concerns about the health of China’s economy can trigger abrupt, wide reaching sell-offs in financial and commodity markets that place its trading partners, commodity exporters, and other emerging markets under pressure,” the IMF pointed out.
The bottom line: The IMF isn’t exactly super plugged into global asset markets in the same vein as forecasters at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. But their latest assessment of the global economy and risk markets offers up a good counterbalance to the enthusiasm that has begun to creep back into financial markets after the October 2017 through December 2018 rout.
Happy trading, folks.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @briansozzi
www.yahoo.com/finance/news/imf-serves-up-depressing-new-outlook-on-the-world-for-investors-to-ponder-130000560.html
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 5, 2020 6:50:49 GMT
Bernie Gives a Reality Check about Trump's "Booming Economy"
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