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

[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.