Dow closes at highest level since May 2008. For the week, Nasdaq gains 1.7%, and S&P 500 adds 1.4%.

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.cnn.com/

Dow 12,949.87 (+0.35 %) +45.79 Nasdaq 2,951.78 (-0.27 %) -8.07 S&P 1,361.28 (+0.24 ) +3.24

[surfdog]

1. The Dow has doubled under Pres. Obama

He took office around 8000 , the Dow was in a freefall to about 6500

Does big business approve of Pres. Obama's policies maybe the Republicans should look at the Dow Jones

[denverbill]

2. At least as importantly, the NASDAQ is higher than at ANY time under Bush.

You won't hear that from the MSM though.

[MineralMan]

3. Won't hear that in the MSM?

Here's a story at the top of a Google News search just now:

"Nasdaq hits decade high; stocks close up 1%"

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/16/markets/markets_newyork/?hpt=hp_t2

It's easy to say that the MSM doesn't cover things, but Google News often proves that to be incorrect.

It will be on tonight's network news, as well.

[denverbill]

8. Well, I just visited CBS.com, NBC.com, ABC.com, and FOX.com and saw no mention of it.

Even in their business headlines.

Maybe I missed it or maybe they'll post their articles later though. I'm sure if I dig around I can find it at one of those sites.

[Yavin4]

4. Larry Kudlow (CNBC Rethug) Said That The Dow Would Get Over 20,000 Under Bush II

Ever since Obama won, he's been crying like a spoiled toddler and saying how awful things were going to get.

What say he now?

[rurallib]

5. I feel sorry for those who go to him for advice

[FarLeftFist]

6. The HIGHEST EVER Dow Jones closing in history was 14,160.

[Roland99]

7. But who (or, really, what) is pushing up the DJIA?

HFT, bay-bee.

HFT.

volume has been low for a long time which makes it easier for those algorithms to work their magic for the oligarchy while the schlubs with their 401(k)s are going to be relegated to the dustbin of history once the whole shooting match collapses.

Beware the (Greek) Ides of March.

[CoffeeCat]

10. That's what I don't get AT ALL...

...what is propping up this market?

Many people got out of the market, because it was too volatile. Others got out because they cashed in their 401ks when the economy tanked. They needed that money to survive. Generally, the stock market has become a toy of the monied. To some extent it always was. However, there were many, many people with pensions, 401ks and retirement funds--and a lot of them were died-in-the-wool middle classers.

I think the market has sloughed a good portion of the middle class.

I will never understand what is driving these near-record numbers. The growth seems plastic--or artificial. You mentioned algorithms. Could the market be artificially and steadily growing, when it really isn't?

Do you pay attention to the Baltic Dry Index? I look at this Index as a very important measure of economic growth and activity. It has TANKED like a hot stone lately. It's as low as it was during the 2008 crash. A year ago, I heard one commentator say that if the BDI is under 1,000, it is time to start panicking. It's at around 600 last time I checked--which is horrendous. The MSM is spinning these deplorable numbers as a product of increased dry ships--which thereby instills a downward pressure on bulk shipping prices.

Baloney. That can't be driving these numbers that low. Low BDI numbers suggest that the global
economy has slowed and is in a white-hot free fall.

I will never understand what is propping up the stock market. It's like they've figured out how to succeed without us--without "We The People." It wouldn't surprise me to learn that they've got some kind of artificial scheme that increases the DOW--only to enrich themselves.

They're all criminals. I put nothing past them. They know our politicians will protect them, deregulate them, fail to investigate or prosecute them. They have no fear of reprisals, legal
or otherwise. They're able to do whatever their criminal imaginations dream up.

[Roland99]

13. Ayup...the chart for the Baltic Dry Index is pretty damn scary. And consider these two items...

(note the MASSIVE spike in HFT activity from Aug 5, 2011 and later)

Presenting The "Rise Of The HFT Machine" - Visual Confirmation How SkyNet Broke The Stock Market On.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/presenting-rise-hft-machine-visual-confirmation-how-skynet-broke-stock-market-us-downgrade-day


Then this:

Guest Post: Has Derivatives Deleveraging Fueled The Stock Rally?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-has-derivatives-deleveraging-fueled-stock-rally


HFT traders creating a "market" that will save them from themselves??

[MadHound]

9. Meanwhile, out in the real world, people are still hurting

Millions are still unemployed, millions are underemployed, millions are being foreclosed upon, millions are stuck with underwater mortgages.

The Dow is not a significant indicator of anything other than the fact that the rich are getting richer. After all, the top ten percent of wealth owners in this country own eighty percent of the stock.

[CoffeeCat]

11. Wow! I did not know that...

I just wrote a diatribe, in the post above, about the artificial feel to the rises in the DOW and NASDAQ.

I just don't understand how most of us can be affected by the economy--but the stock market is
going gangbusters and sits at near-record levels.

Your comment--about 80 percent of the stock being owned by top ten percent certainly makes sense.

However, this is what I don't get. The DOW and the NASDAQ is comprised of companies that rely on consumer spending. Take a handful of companies---GM, Target, Apple, Walmart, etc. If consumers are hurting (and they are) why are these stocks not affected by lower consumer demand? Why aren't their stock prices falling?

I understand how some stocks can succeed--such as energy, biotech , etc. We have no choice but to buy gas--and inadvertently support the oil companies. Biotech has its own little niche has do other stocks. However, most companies rely on snagging consumer discretionary spending.

I fail to see how these stocks are moving.

I also don't understand why the bank stocks didn't implode. This seems like the biggest con job. Bank of America should have imploded. What happened to the crap mortgages that were on all of the bank's books? Basically, all of the bad mortgages that were rolled into secondary-market securities--were sold back and forth among these big banks (Wells Fargo, BofA, Chase, etc.). Shouldn't their stock prices plummeted? Or do we just ignore than the banks have billions of dollars of worthless subprime baloney on their balance sheets? It appears that we are ignoring it.

Something is not RIGHT.

[MadHound]

12. What is key is the companies that make up the Dow

There are only thirty corporations that make up the Dow index,
http://money.cnn.com/data/dow30/

A lot of them are seriously tied into the defense industry, get heavy government help(bank bailout), or are actually pretty recession proof.

Same with the NASDAQ 100
http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/indices/nasdaq-100.aspx

Also, you've got to remember, this is a global economy right now, and while times are tough here, elsewhere they are going gangbusters, like in China, and India, where a lot of our jobs went.

Thus, we're looking at a fairly skewed picture based on the well being of 130 corporations that do business everywhere. Since those profits made abroad stay abroad due to tax loopholes, we don't even benefit from corporate profits abroad, either in money coming into the country or taxes coming into the country.

It truly is a distorted picture of how our economy is doing. Truly, the only thing that these truly show is how well these corporations are doing, and how much the rich are benefiting.

[eridani]

14. How wonderful for the 1%

Too bad for the rest of us.

[Populist_Prole]

15. That was my thought

I mean, if XYZ company were to shit can 10K jobs in the US and relocate production elsewhere, how much you want to bet that the The Dow Jones would respond favorably?

[Art_from_Ark]

16. Jobs are our biggest export

And Wall Street encourages it.

[B Calm]

17. My 401 K and IRA's look damn good,

and I'm a working class man. I think if this trend continues, the GOP will fall!!