Dow Closes Above 16000

[brooklynite]

Source: Wall Street Journal

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 16,000 for the first time Thursday, extending a rally that has the blue chip-index on pace for its best year in a decade.

Gains on Thursday came after Janet Yellen moved a step closer to becoming the next Federal Reserve leader and a better-than-expected report on the jobs market boosted sentiment.

Behind the broader push that took the Dow through this latest milepost: seemingly greater confidence in the stock market's ability to withstand a scaling back by the Federal Reserve of the bond-market purchases it has been employing to stimulate the economy.

With Thursday's gain, the Dow has advanced 22% so far this year, putting it on pace for the biggest annual rally since a 25% gain in 2003. The blue-chip index is up 144% from its 2009 low.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303653004579211283929257404

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Democrats = "Bad for Business"

[Skittles]

1. despite a "socialist president"

[DURHAM D]

2. I guess the Senate action today was well received.

[Major Hogwash]

9. ^There it is!^ Reid dropped the big one, and the DOW responded!!!

Not only will the federal government get rolling again, but the economy will continue to go ahead full steam!!

It's the Obama Freedom Train!!!

[klook]

3. The Filibuster Rally! (n/t)

[Brigid]

4. Yipee. Now how about *wages* start going up.

[IkeRepublican]

5. I don't like this

When the Dow sets these insane record highs, bad shit follows.

Examples:
1986 record - 1987 October crash, which never recovered for years.*
1997 record - 2000 dot com bust
2007 record - 2008 AIG/Lehman

*The 1986 record was in the 2000-3000 point range, miniscule by today's standards. But, recall the 1987 crash that followed and the 1992 recession that followed after that. The 1992 recession due to 80's Reaganomics slowly got worse over time and somehow seems to be overlooked today. It was a bad one.

[Javaman]

6. Oh you gloomy gus!

pish posh history! Puh!

LOL

Cheers!

[bossy22]

7. thats a silly correlation

yes, the stock market will go down sometime in the future, and yes there is going to be another economic slump sometime in the future but I wouldn't say that this qualifies the stock news as bad news.

[llmart]

8. "Insane record highs".....

You do realize that when the market hit 2000 THAT was a record high at that point too. Then of course there were more "insane record highs" after that - 3,000, 4,000, 5,000....well, you get my drift.

If you live long enough you'll see more "insane record highs". What a Debbie Downer.

[Fumesucker]

12. It's the fact the Dow is so disconnected from the actual economy

Wall Street is soaring while Main Street is still stumbling along.

The term "irrational exuberance" comes to mind.

[llmart]

14. Well, it's not disconnected from my economy......

I'm elated since I've seen my IRA increase by $53K in the last seven months. I'm semi-retired and draw from my IRA if/when an unexpected expense occurs. I live in a "senior community" and most of the people here no longer work at all and this gives them hope too.

If I took it all out of the stock market and put it in a "safe" investment I'd be making a half a percent. No thank you.

[PM Martin]

10. Democrats are bad for the business, really?

[Gothmog]

11. President Obama is a horrible socialist

President Obama has to be the world's most ineffective socialist

[CatholicEdHead]

13. Dow at this level is still worth less than 2007/2008

with the relative changes in the market since then.

[Martin99s]

15. Dow Closes Above 16000

On Thursday the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 16,000 for the first time in the much-watched average's 117-year history

[gopiscrap]

18. welcome to DU

[RandiFan1290]

16. Thank god it passed!!!1

Good thing you guys got to keep your tax cuts, as well!!

[Morganfleeman]

17. The market is completely disconnected from reality.

When the U.S macro picture turned ugly between March and May the market continued to climb. The US macro picture has been lukewarm at best since July and the market continues to climb. High yield credit, which is generally correlated with stock prices has been moving sideways recently while the market continues to climb.

The one thing which has a near perfect correlation with the Dow and the S&P 500 is the size of the Fed balance sheet. Just plot both out, you'd be hard pressed to find a better correlation. And just look at market performance on days where the Fed is buying debt via open market operations. The market tends to be up.

We are setting ourselves for a bubble that will dwarf 2008. If there's ever a hint that the Fed will start reducing asset purchases, the market will not take it well. Any market where the fundamentals fly out the window is a market on very shaky ground.

Anyone who keeps telling themselves "this time is different" has not studied the history of financial crises.