The SP500 has now improved to a LOSS for the year of (-16.99%). We are now at a five day gain in the SP500 of 6.36%. (Friday to Thursday) Looks like it will be very difficult for the markets to avoid a GREEN week this week.....with only one day to go. LOL Smokie.....I dont care why the markets go up.....all I care about is that they do. No one gets any BROWNIE POINTS for calling why the market did what it did. We all know that figuring out why the markets do anything is impossible anyway. Perhaps this little BUMP UP day will motivate a flood of people to come back into the markets......and become a self perpetuating rally for a while.
Exactly WXYZ. The point is to be invested to capture days such as this. Over time a lot of folks miss these little rips and the next one and it just puts them behind overall. Today is a good example of nobody knowing nothing. I certainly couldn't have called it. Enjoy the gain this evening...we all deserve it.
I have had some discussions about META lately. This article is a very good summary of what I see as WRONG with the company going forward. How Meta went from a trillion-dollar company to mass layoffs https://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-...dollar-company-to-mass-layoffs-211332657.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Meta’s (META) recent mass layoff marks a turning point for a company whose business model once seemed untouchable despite years of controversies over privacy and Russian election interference. While some might blame Meta’s fall on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s obsession with the immersive online world known as the metaverse, that’s only one factor that helped send its stock price plummeting 70% in the last year. Other major blows include the rise of short-form video platform TikTok, Apple privacy changes that hurt advertising revenue, and a lack of Gen Z users. “The company literally has one foot in one direction, which is the metaverse, and another foot in short form video trying to compete with TikTok, and it's not doing either particularly well at the moment,” Forrester Research Director Mike Proulx told Yahoo Finance. TikTok’s rise, and a graying Facebook Meta faces threats from both its own aging user base and the rise of TikTok, a Chinese app with more than 1 billion monthly active users. The key to TikTok’s success is its short-form video format and algorithmically driven For You page, which serves up a stream of videos designed to mesmerize you. As TikTok rose, Meta focused on taking on rival Snapchat, aping its ephemeral video features. TikTok continued perfecting its algorithm and creating a new destination for Gen. Z users. Meta’s attempt to take on TikTok’s short-form video, Reels, isn’t catching on with those younger users either “We know that meta has a Gen Z problem,” Proulx explained. “The market share for Reels amongst Gen Z is far lower than that of tech TikTok.” According to Forrester, just 40% of teens between 12 and 17 say they use Facebook weekly — down from 48% in 2021. Sixty-one percent of those teens say they use Instagram weekly, and 69% use TikTok. An August Pew Research Center survey found that just 32% of teens use the main Facebook app, while 62% say they use Instagram. TikTok is pulling in 67% of teens. Unfortunately for Meta, TikTok continues to gain traction among both users and advertisers. “Two years ago it wasn’t clear that TikTok was going to be as dominant as it is,” Julie Biel, portfolio manager and senior research analyst Kayne Anderson Rudnick, told Yahoo Finance Live. “They’re kind of eating [Meta’s] lunch, and seeing an economic downturn, we shouldn’t be surprised that advertisers are pulling back spending [at Meta].” The economy and Apple are squeezing Meta’s moneymaker The weakened economy is also hammering Meta, which generates the vast majority of its revenue through online advertising. One of the first line items companies cut as part of their cost-savings measures is their ad budgets — directly impacting Meta’s bottom line. Meta is also still dealing with the fallout from Apple’s (AAPL) iOS privacy changes called App Tracking Transparency. The feature, which Apple rolled out in 2021, lets users choose whether apps track them across third-party apps and websites. Before the ad market started drying up, Zuckerberg warned that Apple’s privacy changes would kill digital advertising. The slowing economy and Apple’s privacy changes combined to create a bleak couple of quarters for Meta. In the second quarter of this year, it reported its first year-over-year drop in sales — and it reported its second-ever decline the following quarter. Meta is plowing cash into a massive gamble Even with declining revenue growth, Zuckerberg continues to put pressure on the company by steering billions of dollars towards his plans for the metaverse. In 2021, Meta spent $10 billion on its Reality Labs division, which builds out the firm’s metaverse hardware and software. Meta has already spent more than $9 billion on the project so far this year. During Meta’s recent third-quarter earnings call, CFO Dave Wehner said metaverse spending will increase even more in 2023. These billions will go to fund an endeavor that people might never even sign up for. According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta’s “Horizon Worlds” is, so far, a dud. Meta initially wanted to have 500,000 users in the app by the end of 2022, but it scaled that back to 280,000. That’s because there are fewer than 200,000 running around the lonely digital domain. In October, Zuckerberg suggested the metaverse could also become a virtual workspace, but experts remain skeptical of the Meta CEO's business case for Reality Labs. “They’ve been trying to convince us that the business use case for VR is really there, and I have yet to have someone really explain it to me in a way where the economic model makes a lot of sense,” Biel said. “I don’t think anyone really wants to sit in a VR space and conduct office meetings. They’re already bad enough as it is.” While Meta will cut costs by axing workers, Proulx said the company also has to rebuild its business plan if it wants to ramp up momentum. Turning things around at Meta could mean the company choosing between the metaverse Zuckerberg sees as its future, or the social media apps that made it giant. In the meantime, Proulx said, “We predict a bleak 2023 for Meta.”" MY COMMENT These are the business....facts of life....that I believe currently has META on the road to being Blackberry or MySpace. In addition......with the stock structure......Zukerberg has total dictatorial control of the company. Even if every other shareholder voted against him on some issue......there are not enough votes to beat his control of the company. Now to be fair.....I will say.....the big competition right now from the Chinese front company....TikTok is likely to disappear. This company is a total Chinese tool. I would call it a Chinese Trojan Horse......but they are not even trying to hide the fact that this company is sending every bit of user content and data straight to the Chinese Communist Party. Whether or not this company is allowed to EXIST in our country will be decided some time over the next year or two. This will be a test of whether......as a country......we are just giving up to China.
Like Smokie, I care what is causing market changes. If it is clear the economy is growing, that is completely different than if the market is going up due to less rational factors. This holds for individual companies, also. If a stock gets pumped up based on hype, I am far less interested in owning it than of it has real growth. I try to look past the warm flickering glow of the ticker and focus on the companies and economy the ticker is supposed to represent.
I checked out the election "progress" a bit this morning. Not much change in those areas still left counting. To me, this just reeks of total incompetence. You would think these areas that have dealt with these same issues would work on making the process better there for their voters and citizens. The wild things we are able to do now with technology, world wide innovation, and all sorts of things....but this vote counting looks like a chisel and tablet or travel by covered wagons. Embarrassing for those areas and the officials in charge of it.
Wasn't this the one where the main guy was just asking investors for help by giving him an additional 12 or 14 billion to avoid the collapse just a day or two ago? These investors "money" has vaporized into thin air it appears or at least bought this guy a lot of nice things I guess.
Cryptocurrency 101 = Now you see it now you don't. Reminds me of the virtual cows on Zinga many years ago.
We have on occasion discussed index funds vs active managed funds here. Also, self managed portfolios and sometimes advisor managed. Here is some recent info that the change continues even in 2022. Investors today have more control over their plans and what they pay in fees than ever before. Continuing a trend of the past several years, investors in mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) continue to favor index funds over actively managed funds. According to Morningstar, index mutual funds and ETFs reported net inflows totaling $665 billion for the 12-month period ended September 30, 2022. Active funds reported estimated net outflows totaling $615 billion. The dollars invested in mutual funds and ETFs is now about evenly split between active and index funds. (Vectors).
This won’t end well for him sad to say. This is what happens when you have chaos in the land - A child managing BILLIONS of dollars with zero transparency and accountability. SBF is the face of the 2020 crypto bubble. Because like him there are so many other exchanges with similar qualities - NONE The ONLY way to own crypto, if you chose to do so, is directly into hard wallets. And I seriously doubt that the majority of its owners do just that. I will never understand this sector/asset, and I’m seriously trying
Your HONORING THE VETERANS post.......is the POST OF THE DAY....Zukodany. As I mentioned in another context a few days ago.....I have been reading about one of my High School teachers that was among the first group to parachute into Normandy on D-Day. He was a 29 year old 1st Lt. His unit was responsible for capturing and holding a number of key areas to support and safeguard the landings on Utah Beach. It is amazing what we do not know about those that are on the fringes of our life.....or even those in the center of our life. I also grew up in a career Army family....my wife grew up in a career Navy family......so we understand the military and the people that serve very well. THANK YOU....to all that have served
This is a very appropriate article after yesterday. October’s CPI and the Inflation Wall of Worry Stocks’ big Thursday shows how much sentiment was detached from reality. https://www.fisherinvestments.com/en-us/marketminder/octobers-cpi-and-the-inflation-wall-of-worry (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Throughout this year’s maddening inflation, we have held the basic premise that sentiment surrounding inflation, rather than the fast-rising prices themselves, is the primary drag on stocks. This is always a hard thing to prove, but every now and then a powerful piece of evidence arises. We think Thursday’s market reaction to October’s US Consumer Price Index (CPI) report is one such piece. If you dig into the details, there is little fundamental reason the news should spur the S&P 500 to jump 5.5% on the day. Yet jump it did, which we think speaks to how sour inflation-related sentiment is. If a modest deceleration for quirky reasons could spur such a big relief rally, the inflation wall of worry—which stocks legendarily climb—must be very high indeed. To be clear, the CPI data were encouraging. The headline year-over-year inflation rate slowed to 7.7%, which is high—but below consensus expectations for 8.0% and significantly slower than September’s 8.2% rate and well off June’s 9.1% high.[ii] Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, also slowed, from 6.6% y/y to 6.3%.[iii] On a month-over-month basis, headline CPI matched September’s 0.4% rise, while core slowed to 0.3% from 0.6%.[iv] But under the hood, things were mixed. Energy flipped from September’s -2.1% m/m drop to a 1.8% rise as falling household natural gas utility prices couldn’t offset a 4.4% jump in oil-based fuels.[v] Core goods prices fell -0.4% m/m, which seems promising at first blush, but that stemmed primarily from used cars (down -2.4%) and apparel (down -0.7%).[vi] Recreational goods, most personal care products, new cars and a broad spectrum of household products all endured another month of rising prices. Meanwhile, services’ deceleration from 0.8% m/m to 0.4% stems primarily from a -4.0% drop in health insurance costs, which is mostly an imaginary figure.[vii] The measurement of Health Insurance CPI is bizarre, reflecting health insurance firms’ retained earnings rather than actual health insurance prices. Will inflation continue to slow from here? We can’t say with certainty, but we don’t expect inflation to stay super high. There are many signs it is likely to slow, including falling commodity prices. Home prices are also rolling over, which should feed through into the shelter component of CPI in the months ahead. Ditto slowing money supply growth and easing supply chain conditions. All are down from the red-hot levels that fed into CPI earlier this year, and prices are slowly digesting all these changes. So to us the outlook is positive. But we think it is premature to argue October’s CPI report confirms this. But in our view, it doesn’t necessarily need to. With sentiment so dour, almost any positive surprise could trigger an outsized reaction. The inflation outlook didn’t suddenly get better today—the conditions we think point to slowing inflation ahead have been in place for several weeks now. But investors have seemingly ignored this, getting hung up instead on Fed forecasts and, more recently, the bizarre happenings in cryptocurrencies. But CPI’s deceleration has seemingly jolted that gloom, injecting a dose of inflation hope into stocks. Or maybe it is just the shock acceptance that things can get better and prior extrapolations of high inflation far into the future may not be any more warranted than straight-line math suggesting a quick return to pre-pandemic, low inflation rates. So if you are investing for long-term growth, we think there are a few broad takeaways for you. One, nothing in October’s report precludes a reacceleration in November, so prepare yourself now not to overreact if that happens—monthly indicators often wobble their way to new trends. Two, don’t expect a huge market jump whenever inflation slows from here. Today’s was serendipitous—enjoy it, but it isn’t predictive. Three, take heart that there remains a lot of room for sentiment to catch up with reality still. Today’s market reaction doesn’t mean the gloom is suddenly gone. There remains plenty of angst over interest rates, bond markets, crypto, the strong dollar, energy prices and all the rest. That creates a big wall of worry for a new bull market to climb, whether one is underway now or not." MY COMMENT YEP.....sentiment is totally DETACHED from reality. Much of this is driven by the constantly negative day to day stories in the financial media that are rife with blatant speculation and unfounded opinion. Fear mongering is the name of the game for the media now. FACT......forget it. We had a GREAT DAY yesterday for the markets......but.....the reality is that the detachment from reality is alive and well and will continue. For long term investors the story is the same as always.....IGNORE IT ALL. Focus on the long term and the FACT that over the long term the markets are POSITIVE.
Nah. I have zero in any crypto. It's just never been part of my plan. I have a couple of friends that do and when they try to explain it, I just don't trust it to a comfortable extent. I am okay that they or anyone else that invests in it does. It's their plan and their money, but I will stick to what I am comfortable with. There is enough risk in "general investing" for me.
As Zukodany noted....this is the big story of the day. FTX files for bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried steps down https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftx-bankruptcy-bankman-fried-steps-down-150838412.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "Crypto exchange FTX and many of its affiliated companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company announced on Friday, with FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried stepping down as CEO. "I'm really sorry, again, that we ended up here," Bankman-Fried, a former crypto billionaire, said in a Twitter post that went out soon after the filing announcement. John J. Ray III will take over as chief executive, while Bankman-Fried will assist during the transition. The filing for the affiliate, Alameda Research LLC, lists between $10 billion and $50 billion assets, between $10 billion and $50 billion in liabilities, and more than 100,000 creditors. "The immediate relief of Chapter 11 is appropriate to provide the FTX group the opportunity to assess its situation develop a process to maximize recoveries for stakeholders," Ray, who has previous experience as a restructuring attorney and reorganization officer for companies like Enron and Fruit of the Loom, said in the statement. "The FTX group has valuable assets that can only be effectively administrated in an organized joint fashion. I want to ensure every employee, customer, creditor, contract party, stockholder, investor, government authority, and other stakeholders that we are going to conduct this effort with due diligence, thoroughness, and transparency." The Chapter-11 filing is the latest development in what has been a catastrophic week for the troubled exchange, which has rattled the crypto universe with contagion fears. Bitcoin sold off 4% after the release to trade below $17,000. Ether, which sold off by as much as 5%, is changing hands around $1,250. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has dropped by 4% in the hour following the release from $880 billion to $857 billion, according to Coinmarketcap. The filing, likely the worst since the 2014 default of Mt.Gox, which at the time was the largest crypto exchange in the world, includes FTX US (West Realm Shires Services), trading firm Alameda Research, and approximately 140 affiliated businesses, according to the release. But it excludes LedgerX LLC, FTX Australia, FTX Pay and the company’s crypto derivatives business, FTX Digital Markets. The Bahamas Securities regulator on Thursday said it would freeze the assets of FTX Digital Markets, meaning FTX's bankruptcy could be handled by different jurisdictions, according to Greg Plotko, a partner with the law firm Crowell and Moring who specializes in restructurings. "That could lead to differing opinions," Plotko told Yahoo Finance. Though by no means the largest, FTX represented a fast-growing top contender crypto exchange, catching a $32 billion valuation as recently as January, thanks to funding from venture capitalists such as SoftBank, Temasek, LightSpeed Ventures, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, BlackRock as well as a host of crypto-specific firms. For most of this year, FTX was cited as among the top three to four exchanges by crypto trading volume, according to Nomics." MY COMMENT This event.....perhaps FRAUD....is a brutal blow to Crypto. It looks to me like someone will be going to jail....but that is just my personal opinion.......from what I have seen about allegations of playing with customer assets to the tune of billions of dollars.
I agree. Salute to all that have served and to those currently serving. I have had the occasion to visit with some of the older veterans at times, and there are less and less of them nowadays. I always come away from those conversations in total awe and a massive respect for them. They are truly one of a kind special people. I also have worked with a few of the younger ones that have seen more recent conflict. It is amazing what the everyday citizens do not know about these fine young people. The places and dire situations some of them have been in. I appreciate all of them immensely. What they do matters. I am grateful for their continued service.
Oh yes......the markets. They are having a very nice follow-through from yesterday....especially the NASDAQ and the SP500. Although it looks like they have backed off a little bit now. I have another nice gain going so far today....but nowhere near yesterday. I have 7 of 10 stocks in the green. COST and HON are my losers.....with TSLA also in the red for me today to a lesser amount.
This is a little outdated....but still a reflection of today......so far. Stock rally takes breather after biggest one-day surge since 2020 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stock-market-news-live-updates-november-11-2022-115914717.html (BOLD is my opinion OR what I consider important content) "U.S. stocks paused their dramatic ascent Friday morning after a deceleration in CPI inflation data ignited the most intense rally on Wall Street since early 2020. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) each posted a modest gain of 0.1% at the open, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slipped below breakeven. Treasury yields held steady after their steepest one-day decline Thursday in more than a decade. A reversal in China's Zero-COVID policy to reduce the amount of time in quarantine travelers to the country spend buoyed sentiment in early trading. Oil markets advanced as traders speculated the move may stoke a boost to commodity demand, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures bouncing nearly 3% to above $88 per barrel. Meanwhile on the economic data front, the University of Michigan's preliminary reading on its consumer sentiment survey for Nov. fell to 54.7 from. 59.9 in October, the lowest since July. All three major averages skyrocketed Thursday, each recording their largest one-day advances since a rebound from the throes of the COVID crash more than two years ago. Outsized moves were catalyzed by lighter October consumer price data that fueled bets the Federal Reserve may halt the tightening of financial conditions as soon as early next year. The S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq soared 5.5%, 3.7% — or 1,200 points — and 7.4%, respectively. “Overall, the report suggests that peak inflation may finally be behind us, though inflation may remain elevated for a while,” BNY Mellon Investment Management Head of U.S. Macro Sonia Meskin said in a note Thursday. She noted that the figure supports the smaller 0.50% rate increase for December telegraphed at this month’s FOMC meeting, which investors are pricing in. “However, it is also important to not over-emphasize one report for inflation and policy trajectory,” she added. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in October rose at an annual 7.7% and increased 0.4% over the month. On a "core" basis, which strips out the volatile food and energy components of the report, prices rose at a clip of 6.3% year-over-year and 0.3% on a monthly basis. Despite the moderation, many strategists assert that excitement is premature, with Federal Reserve officials still poised to tighten further after Chair Jerome Powell said last month that policymakers still have “some ways to go” on restoring price stability — a message that his central bank colleagues have since also echoed in a series of public speeches. “The Fed’s extreme data dependence combined with the fact that economic data will only show the real-time labor market and inflation slowdown with a lag, increases the odds of an overtightening accident,” Gregory Daco, EY Parthenon chief economist, said in emailed comments. Meanwhile, Nicholas Colas of DataTrek points out another reality: Although inflation trends lower once it peaks and starts to decline – as seen in 1970, 1974, 1980, 1990, 2001, and 2008 – that downshift typically comes with recessions, and there are no exceptions to the rule. Turmoil persisted in cryptoworld as the FTX debacle unravels and the company announced Friday morning that it was filing for bankruptcy. Fallen crypto hero billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried has also stepped down as CEO and is reported to be under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as his exchange seeks a cash bailout. Bitcoin traded around $16,500 Friday morning." MY COMMENT NOTHING new today....as usual. The markets are NOW driven by total speculation and media on a day to day basis. Of course......the QUANT TRADING MODELS used by the big boys are capitalizing on the news driven environment that is now the norm. As usual it is a tale of two markets.......the short term that is dominated and driven by the micro-traders and the short term traders.......and.....the majority of investors that are long term that sit and do nothing. I think we have a pretty good chance for a nice rally into the close today. OR......we end up with late day profit taking...by the short term traders.
