STOCK MARKET WATCH - Thursday, 27 August 2020

[Tansy_Gold]

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Thursday, 27 August 2020

Previous SMW:
SMW for 26 August 2020




AT THE CLOSING BELL ON: 26 August 2020


Dow Jones 28,331.92 +83.48 (0.30%)
S&P 500 3,478.73 +35.11 (1.02%)
Nasdaq 11,665.06 +198.59 (1.73%)

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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.

[Warpy]

1. I've been watching the tech runup with a great deal of alarm

It looks like that's where all the fast buck money is going and it doesn't matter if any of those companies is turning a profit or not, or if their business plan says they'll ever turn a profit. It looks very uncomfortably like the run up to 2000, crazed people looking to make a killing on the dodgiest of IPOs.

The whole market is hyperinflated, but the worst of it seems to be in the tech sector. Had the market been allowed to correct in March, with the high risk, zero profit stuff shaken out, it might not be quite as scary now.

I just hope it doesn't start a cascade.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. I know next to nothing about the stock market

But even I thought something weird was going on with the NASDAQ . . .

[Warpy]

4. Wolf Richter, the contrarian, pointed out how many

companies are "unicorn companies," posting bigger losses every single quarter and watching their stock get bid up higher and higher. He mentioned Uber and Wayfair as two of them, mentioned others in his podcast.

Something very weird is going on there. It really is starting to reek.

[progree]

2. S&P 500 closed up 1.02% today (8/26). But equal-weight S&P 500 down 0.17%

S&P 500: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC?p=^GSPC
Equal-weight S&P 500 index: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5ESPXEW?p=^SPXEW
Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) -- https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RSP/history?p=RSP

Again showing the big divergence between the mostly Tech giants that dominate the S&P 500's performance and most of the S&P 500 stocks. Unfortunately I haven't found historic data for ^SPXEW above, but there is for the the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP)

Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP)

12/31/19 Close: 115.72 -- End of Year 2019

02/12/20 Close: 118.71 -- All Time High

08/26/20 Close: 110.85 -- Today's close, 6.6% below it's all time high (reached in February), and down 4.2% year-to-date

In an S&P 500 equal weight index, all 500 companies are given equal weight. So that a few giants don't dominate, and giving a better idea how the non-giants are doing. FWIW.

The regular S&P 500 index is 2.7% above what was its all time high set in February (first exceeded 8 days ago), and up 7.7% year-to-date. (Using closing prices in all of the above numbers in this post)

Quite a divergence.