The MEDIA at work......MORONS at work with their scary headlines. CPI inflation soars by most since 2022 as gas prices bite https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/a...-since-2022-as-gas-prices-bite-191214395.html Of course this is just about....TOTALLY...driven by gas and oil prices. Other aspects of inflation are either going down or under control. REALITY: "On a “core” basis, which strips out volatile categories like food and energy, prices rose by 0.2% from February’s levels and 2.6% from a year ago. Economists had expected increases of 0.3% and 2.7%, respectively." BUT....who gives a "F" about REALITY.....when we have he entire economic world, the government, the media, and the FED using a made up measure of what is normal inflation.......2%.
A shallow market today....but at least the SP500 and NASDAQ are GREEN to start the day. I actually think that the ability of the markets to be GREEN...... just about every day this week..... and to come back from big RED at some of the opens....shows the INHERENT STRENGTH of the markets right now. A positive sign for the future. YES....the bull market is alive and well....even though it is often covered up by current world events and media NEGATIVITY.
A CLASSIC contrary indicator. AND....a meaningless indicator.....if you want to live in the world of REALITY. Consumer sentiment hits record low, inflation fears rise amid Iran war https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/10/consumer-sentiment-inflation-fears-iran-war.html This type of media and financial....GARBAGE...is the LAST thing I would ever take into account as an investor.
An early earnings.....and market..... indicator. THIS....is actual REALITY....whether people and the markets choose to accept business fundamentals anymore or not. TSMC posts 35% jump in revenue to new record high as AI chip demand stays strong https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/10/tsmc-q1-record-revenue-ai-chip-demand-strong.html
I have given up watching the markets today. They will do whatever they wish to do. What I am NOW focused on watching is........GASP......ART. Specifically.....WESTERN ART. The Scottsdale Art Auction starts at noon today.....at least session 1 does. Session 2 will be tomorrow. From what I am seeing when I look at the current....pre-auction bidding..... is a continuation of the very STRONG prices that have been the norm for at least 2-4 years now. The KEY auctions that I watch in the WESTERN ART WORLD: Scottsdale Art Auction Santa Fe Art Auction Jackson Hole Art Auction Lone Star Art Auction AND....of course the BIG KAHUNA.....of Western Art: Coeur d'Alene Art Auction I ALSO....watch many other auctions and shows. Interestingly the Coeur d'Alene Art Auction is NOT held in Coeur d'Alene Idaho. It is in Reno Nevada. it started out in Idaho....but...soon was moved to Reno partly because the Spokane Airport could not handle the HUGE influx of private jets. if you are curious or interested in this sort of art ...here are some links: https://scottsdaleartauction.com/ https://cdaartauction.com/
HERE is an old article about the Coeur d'Alene auction and how it works. I have never attended in person but it is quite an experience...even if you are not buying anything. GREAT people watching. https://cdaartauction.com/press/ The Wall Street Journal “Lovers of Western Art Stampede to Reno” By Ann E. Berman "Sotheby’s or Christie’s would have been thrilled to sell the dramatic, atmospheric painting Mists in the Yellowstone, by the American Thomas Moran (1837-1926), considered the premier artist of Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, but nobody asked them. When the painting sold last Saturday for $4.9 million–almost double the previous auction record for the artist, and way above its $2 million-$3 million estimate–it was at the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction in the grand ballroom of the Silver Legacy Resort and Casino, one floor below a sea of beeping, flashing slot machines. Las Vegas’s Bellagio, it seems, is not Nevada’s only art attraction: Reno is home to the nation’s biggest and most successful auction of Western art. Every July, hundreds of well-heeled collectors from Maine to Hawaii flock here and spend millions of dollars on important works by Frederic Remington, Charles M. Russell, and other celebrated painters of the Old West. Any one of them will be glad to tell you why these works are here instead of at some fancy-pants auction house in Manhattan. “Collectors of Western art don’t think it gets the respect it deserves back East,” says Dr. Larry Peterson, a Lake Oswego, Ore., dermatologist, and author of books on the work of Russell. “And they just feel more comfortable dealing with Westerners.” This group feels right at home with Bob Drummond of Hayden, Idaho, Stuart Johnson of Kalispell, Mont., and Peter Stremmel of Reno–the trio of art dealers who founded the sale in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 1984. Described by colleagues and clients alike as “a bunch of straight shooters,” they run a tight ship. Estimates and fees are low, and the quality of art is high. Mr. Drummond specializes in “deceased artists,” the market’s term for the classic Cowboy and Indian scenes, Taos School paintings, and panoramic landscapes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mr. Johnson represents blue-chip contemporary painters like Howard Terpning whose nostalgic, evocative paintings of 19th-century Native American life can bring $300,000–a fair chunk of change for an artist whose work would be dismissed as “calendar art” by devotees of the Whitney Biennial. Mr. Stremmel is the auctioneer whose easy banter sends them all home. Under the threesome’s stewardship the sale grew steadily in size and importance, outgrowing its Idaho home in 1999, and relocating to the less picturesque, but better-equipped precincts of Reno. “The year 42 private jets tried to fly in, and [the airport] had to divert some to Spokane because there wasn’t room, it was time to go,” says Mr. Drummond. This year, most of the Lears and Hawkers touched down on Friday. Coeur d’Alene is both a serious buying venue and a two-day party designed to attract out-of-towners and keep them happy until the auction starts on Saturday afternoon. The Friday-night cocktail and buffet, Saturday-morning lecture on painting conservation, and the lunch before the sale were all well attended. Men in cowboy hats and Hawaiian shirts swigged deeply from beer bottles (the bar opens on Friday and stays open until the end of the sale) as they circled the displays of 283 paintings, prints and sculptures. The women accompanying them wore colorful slacks and chunky turquoise jewelry. One well-endowed matron sported a skimpy T-shirt emblazoned with the suggestion “Buy Me Something.” It’s not a group that screams “money,” but looks can be deceiving. “You have no idea how much wealth is in this room,” sighed one dealer, noting that, for many in the crowd, the second or third house is a ranch in Montana waiting to be filled with paintings that reflect the history and the landscape of the West. They had come to the right place, as this year’s catalogue bulged with goodies. The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, was selling nine works from its bottomless Western collection, including Mists of the Yellowstone. In addition, there were colorful scenes of Indian life painted in Taos, N.M., in the early 20th century; watercolors by Frederic Remington; and animal studies by the great wildlife painter Carl Rungius. Besides the museum, many of the lots had come from private collections and estates. By sale time on Saturday, 700 eager bidders were shifting impatiently in their seats as the mayor of Reno welcomed them “to the biggest little city in the world.” The bids began to pop as soon as the auctioneer opened his mouth, unleashing a flurry of activity more familiar to sports fans than art collectors. Mr. Stremmel’s patter was nearly drowned out by Coeur d’Alene employees familiarly known as “Yippers”–a corps of young, male, spotter-cheerleaders positioned around the salesroom who signaled every bid by standing near its source and uttering a series of loud, staccato cries of “Yip! Yip! Yip!” while jumping high in the air and triumphantly pumping their fists. If a bidder hesitated, the yipper moved in closer and made frantic beckoning gestures and held the bidder’s gaze until he anted up. The yippers went crazy when Mr. Stremmel got to the Amon Carter’s Squaw Winter, a rare painting of a Montana Indian settlement by Taos artist Joseph H. Sharp. Estimated at $250,000-$450,000, it finally sold to a client of Denver dealer Steve Good for a record $1.06 million. They revved up again when Navajo Lookout/Surveying the Plains by Russell, owned by the same family since 1921, came on the block at $400,000-$600,000. Sotheby’s Client Services team (which comes to Coeur d’Alene every year to bid on Western works its customers can’t get in its own sales) tried to buy this one, but it sold to Gerald Peters, a dealer with galleries in New York and Santa Fe, N.M., for $616,000. A collector from Palm Desert, Calif., with a ranch in Montana, caused an extended spasm of yipping when he paid $95,000 for Meadow With Cattle a mountain landscape by Victor Higgins expected to sell for only $20,000-$30,000. In a catalogue entry, Mr. Terpning reminded collectors that the Indians depicted in his painting The Guardian, “were not always at battle, but raised children, made love, cooked meals, hunted buffalo.” Goosed by the yippers, bidders pushed the price to $246,400, near the top of its estimate. Five long, loud hours later, it was all over, with 99.3% of the works having sold, many far above estimate. And the sale had racked up a total of $18 million–a new record. Outside the salesroom, the bar was finally closed, but people still lingered, high on adrenalin and Western camaraderie. The old hands wanted to know what the Eastern reporter thought of the Coeur d’Alene. It was sure a lot of fun now, wasn’t it? It sure was. Natty in a well-tailored blue blazer, founder Stuart Johnson accepted my congratulations and tipped an imaginary hat. “Shucks, ma’am,” He said, without a trace of a Western accent. “Yippee-yi-ki-yay.”"
Of course....we do not EXCLUSIVELY collect Western Art. Our collection is about half Western Art and half historic American Impressionistic Art.
YES....being a focused and clinical investor is a good thing. BUT....you still have to live and participate in......LIFE. The Business of Life is the Acquisition of Memories https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2026/04/the-business-of-life-is-the-acquisition-of-memories/
Way to go.....Gen Z. Gen Z is driving IRA contributions to record highs. Here's how to get started. https://finance.yahoo.com/personal-...NjkhKeeD921JNsfT7Iwaj_I5aN1VhcSltGk41SkL6KN6I
HERE you go. The states will NEVER be able to resist this big pot of money hanging out there for the taking. It will be all about......the children. BUT...once they get their billions the politicians will just move on and not care. Meta must face youth addiction lawsuit by Massachusetts, court rules https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/articles/meta-must-face-youth-addiction-135738083.html
The media STILL sucking up to....MR A-HOLE.....for clicks. Michael Burry says he’s still betting against Palantir after Trump post boosts stock https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/10/mic...t-palantir-after-trump-post-boosts-stock.html "He said he’s been betting against the company since the fall of 2025." A CLASSIC market manipulator.....for his personal gain.
A good close for me today. In fact I think I was green every day this week...although I am too lazy to go back and look. Thanks to only TWO green stocks.....AMZN and NVDA....I ended the day and the week with a big....small gain in my stocks. I also got in a good beat on the SP500 with my stocks by.....0.63%
OK a good recovery week for me. If I can keep this up next week......a big "IF"......I might have a chance to be positive. As of the close today my entire account is at, year to date......(-2.85%). (year to date total account return edited for accuracy)
The close today. S&P 500 slips Friday, but index posts best week since November after fragile Iran ceasefire deal https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/09/stock-market-today-live-updates.html
Some GOOD inflation news.....for us SENIORS. Social Security 2027 cost-of-living adjustment estimate rises with gas prices https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/10/social-security-2027-cola-estimate-rises.html "The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, could be 3.2% in 2027 due to sharply rising gasoline prices, according to Mary Johnson, an independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst. That is up from a 1.7% COLA increase Johnson had forecast in March." UNFORTUNATELY....I dont think this is going to hold for long since it is being driven by IRAN.
I'd be very curious to see his overall gains vs. ours. I just have a hunch it is not as good as it might seem. Call to attention does not mean out of this world performance, a la Cathie Wood
HERE...is what AI tells me about......MR A-HOLE"S.......returns and record. "5-Year Performance: 19.17% Recent Market Activity and Performance (2023-2026): Failed Bearish Calls: Since 2017, about 71% of his major public predictions were wrong, including predictions of a "global financial meltdown" in 2017 and "mother of all crashes" in 2021. AI Bubble Bet (2023-2025): In August 2023, he placed a large bet against the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, but in early 2024 admitted he was wrong and the market had risen 30% since his warning. 2026 AI Critique: As of April 2026, Burry has criticized Palantir's valuation, arguing that competitors like Anthropic are capturing more enterprise market share. Fund Status: In November 2025, it was reported that Burry shut down his hedge fund's registration, meaning he is no longer required to file public disclosures of his holdings" Personally i dont know.....but I doubt he shut down his HEDGE fund because it was too successful. AND....I really dont care.....he is simply NOT relevant to the markets or long term investing. He is a fear-monger that is USUALLY....WRONG.
PERHAPS......emphasis on "perhaps"....a good indicator for Monday and next week. Three Oil Supertankers Appear to Make Move Through Hormuz https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/energy/articles/three-oil-supertankers-appear-move-114110364.html ......"If all three pass on Saturday — the journey takes about eight hours — it would mark the biggest day of oil exits through Hormuz since the war caused traffic through the waterway to all but halt at the start of March.".....
