STOCK MARKET WATCH - Friday, 21 August 2020

[Tansy_Gold]

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 21 August 2020

Previous SMW:
SMW for 20 August 2020




AT THE CLOSING BELL ON: 20 August 2020


Dow Jones 27,739.73 +46.85 (0.17%)
S&P 500 3,385.51 +10.66 (0.32%)
Nasdaq 11,264.95 +118.49 (1.06%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours:

Google Finance
MarketWatch
Bloomberg
Stocktwits

(click on links for latest updates)

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Currencies:











Gold & Silver:





Petroleum:

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DU Economics Group Contributor Megathreads:

Progree's Economic Statistics (with links!)
mahatmakanejeeves' Rail Safety Megathread
mahatmakanejeeves' Oil Train Safety Megathread

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This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not

be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.

[tclambert]

1. Found this chart of GDP for recent quarters.

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How can the market ignore this data? Maybe the question should be: How long can the market ignore this data?

[progree]

2. Or this: $earnings/share: Q1 2019: 35.02, Q1 2020: 11.88 😲 👀

They used to say that "earnings drive the market". Not anymore apparently. Now its unlimited borrowing by corporations and unlimited money creation and government spending at deficit-tripling levels, dropping interest rates to zero, along with FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) that drives the market:

Q1 S&P 500 Earnings per share:
2017 Q1: 27.46,
2018 Q1: 33.02,
2019 Q1: 35.02,
2020 Q1: 11.88 😲 👀
https://ycharts.com/indicators/sp_500_eps

We don't have the full Q2 earnings yet. But likely to be a lot worse, given that Q1 GDP declined by 5%, and Q2 GDP declined by 32.9% (both on an annualized rate basis. The actual GDP drops were Q1: 1.3%, Q2: 9.5%). So it would be pretty much impossible for Q2 earnings to be anything but a lot worse than Q1 earnings.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. Wow! Look at all that winning!

2020 Q1 includes March, when pandemic moved into full swing, right?

[progree]

4. True. I don't think there was much pandemic effect on S&P 500 earnings in Jan & Feb, but who

knows, I read that 40% (IIRC) of the earnings or the revenue or somesuch of the S&P 500 companies is outside the U.S., and certainly much of Europe and E. Asia economies were hurting in February and even January.