STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 20 September 2023

[Tansy_Gold]

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Wednesday, 20 September 2023

Previous SMW:
SMW for 19 September 2023



AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 19 September 2023


Dow Jones 34,517.73 -106.57 (0.31%)
S&P 500 4,443.95 -9.58 (0.22%)
Nasdaq 13,678.19 -32.05 (0.23%)

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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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Quote for the Day:

So the youth ran away and buried himself in a hut in the wilds of Canada, and wrote what he thought was the great American novel. It was a painfully crude performance, but it had a new moral impulse in it, and the youth really believed that it was to convert the world to ways of love and justice. He took it to the publishers, and one after another they rejected it. They admitted that it had merit, but it would not sell. Incredible as it seemed to the youth, the test by which the publishers judged an embryo book and its right to be born, was not whether it had vision and beauty and a new moral impulse; they judged it as the newspapers judged what they published—would it sell?

Upton Sinclair. The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism. © 1919.

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.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Market trended one way all day, scarcely any volatility in what I watched

Squeezed out a ham sandwich on a Nike trade. Everything else just went there by 11 or so and stayed there.

Value funds have been especially flat, growth has an up day occasionally.

Guru predicting the US dollar overbought, Yen undervalued, bonds might surge soon. Oil on takeoff.

I think the Washington budget uncertainty is plaguing the mass psyche. There is no telling what will happen today or tomorrow, politically, budget wise, court outcomes.

Best play of the summer was EVOO Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

[Tansy_Gold]

2. I don't know if this makes any difference, but . . . .

https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/trump-welker-nbc-interview-rage-rants-and-lies

And I don't know if the link will work either, but I found Saletan's whole analysis of the Kristen Welker interview with 💩 rather unsettling. The last two paragraphs (and sign off) especially:

IF YOU CAME TO THIS INTERVIEW hoping that Welker or NBC News would refute every lie Trump told, you’ll be disappointed. But I don’t think exhaustive refutation is what we need. In polls, Trump is running even with Biden because many Americans are unhappy with the economy, and most see Biden as old and tired.

These people need to be reacquainted with the reality of Trump. They need to be reminded how recklessly he makes decisions, how poorly he controls his impulses, how ruthlessly he lies, and how impervious he is to correction. They need to be reminded how callously he disregards his oath of office and how little he cares about anyone but himself. They need to be reminded what a psychopath he is.

That’s what Welker accomplished. She has done her job.

I post this in SMW because we used to have some powerful discussions here and maybe it's time, as we approach 2024 and another tense election cycle, to jump start some of those discussions again.

In my never humble opinion, it's the media -- of which both Welker and Saletan are part -- that insists the economy is so terrible and Americans are unhappy with it. It's also the media that keeps harping on Biden's age.

Everyone already knows 💩 is a sociopath, a malignant narcissist who lies with virtually every breath. Those who oppose him don't need to be reminded, and those who support him don't care. They like him the way he is, because he hates the same people they do. We've known this for eight years now. It's not a matter of whether Welker pushed back on his lies or not; it's the fact that she and NBC gave him -- and his lies -- a platform at all, instead of having someone else on who would tell the truth.

What the Biden administration has done has vastly improved the economy. What the Biden administration is continuing to do in the face of GOP opposition is trying to improve further on the gains already made. By saying "Americans are unhappy with the economy," Saletan comes across as agreeing with those Americans and confirming that the economy is in bad shape.

Is it? Maybe that's the $64 question of the day.

[DemReadingDU]

3. The economy is in bad shape?

I don't know either. I can still buy what I need without using credit cards. But at our ages, I don't need to buy much.

Biden is old and tired? Well, so is Trump.
The media should shut-up! Who watches those talking heads? I don't.

I also miss the folks who discussed these matters a few years ago.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. That was one of the reasons I started posting the quotes

Everything I post is from a book I personally own, whether print or digital. Most of the time, I select a book based on something that's going on in the news, and many times I open it at random -- even the digital ones -- and find a pithy quote in hopes it will spark a discussion.

Yesterday's, found in the 1905 Chicago Daily News Almanac which I picked up at a library sale for about 25 cents maybe 30 years ago, was about a railroad merger that the SCOTUS struck down. A SCOTUS that apparently, unlike today's, isn't in the pocket of the billionaires. And frankly, it's beginning to scare me if even on a site like DU there's so much apathy!

Is it apathy because the economy is doing well and we aren't as worried about it as we were in 2008 when Obama and his crew of Geithner, Summers, and Rubin took over? (I think that's who they were; I'm relying on a memory that's 15 years older than it was in '08.)

UAW is on strike because the American Oligarchs are still screwing the workers. WGA and SAG are on strike because the American entertainment Oligarchs are still screwing the workers. Starbucks and Amazon workers are unionizing. Who's next? It seems to be that the push to union organizing is coming because workers feel less afraid and less desperate because the economy is doing better, not because it's doing worse.

I know there are some progressives who are pissed at Biden over the rail strike a few months ago, and I'm ashamed to admit I didn't follow it as closely as I probably should have. Maybe I should have followed more here on DU. I promise to do better in the future.

DU's one and only,
Tansy Gold

[DemReadingDU]

5. I love the quotes, don't stop

Mostly life happens, and things are not in my control. So I have little time to read DU or other sites. Maybe that is what happens with others?

I do read your quotes, sometimes that is about it for the day