Dow soars to new closing high of 11,727

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/

Dow soars to new closing high of 11,727

Specialist Joseph Demartino monitor the screen as he works his post on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange short time before the closing bell Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006. The Dow Jones industrial average surged past its all-time trading high of 11,750.28 Tuesday, taking yet another step in its recovery from seven years of market turmoil. (AP Photo/David Karp)
Enlarge Photo
AP
AP - 4 minutes ago

NEW YORK - The Dow Jones industrial average finally reached new heights Tuesday, extending Wall Street's seven-year recovery with a record closing level after climbing into uncharted territory in trading earlier in the day.

[kenny blankenship]

1. How long til it rises to touch the long term trendline set in Clinton 90s?

Market wanders raggedly at best under Bush, nothing to cheer about.

[Gregorian]

2. Does it mean anything?

Does it mean the economy is fantastic? I doubt it.

I known nothing about the significance of stocks. They are an indication of how much stocks cost, I would assume.

And even so, six years ago it wasn't much lower than it is now.

[RobertSeattle]

9. Doesn't mean much at all

But the right wing whiners need to celebrate any victory they can get.

I clipped this from someone's comment in a blog:

When Clinton took office in 1993 the DJIA was 3241. When he left in 2001 the DJIA was 10587. That’s a change of 226%.

When Bush took office in 2001 the DJIA was 10587. Today, the DJIA closed at 11689. That’s a change of 10.4%

Wow, what is that 7 or 8% over 6 years? That’s like maybe a 1 % compounded annual return. Gee whiz what a boom time.

Let’s put this into some perspective:
Clinton: begin 3200 -> 10900 end
Bush: begin 10900 -> 11700 now

[skids]

25. And then, adjust for inflation.

Just because those dollars are in stocks doesn't make them any more immune to the value of a street dollar. Unless you adjust for inflation when you read stock numbers, you don't get the right picture.

[Maeve]

32. Another POV--note the other markets aren't soaring as well

At least one pundit I heard (NPR) noted that the other markets aren't keeping pace--not usually a good sign for the total economy. Reasoning--when people are worried, they tend to park money in "safer" traditional stocks, which means those in the DOW.

[Red Zelda]

3. I can think of 100

asscrack daily newspapers that will use this tomorrow AM to "balance" the Foley coverage and any stories on Rice stuffed on Page 12. I can hear the news budget meetings now ...

[bigwillq]

17. Hello!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Newsjock]

4. So, if I invested in the Dow stocks in January 2000 ...

... my six-year rate of return would be zero. Stop the presses! Remake the front page! All hail the Bush economic miracle!

[skids]

26. No, your six year rate of return would be negative 15.5%

Here: http://146.142.4.24/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

[Psephos]

30. Bush didn't take office until January 2001

The stock market slide began under Clinton, after the Dow peaked on January 14, 2000. The wheels started coming off the tech bubble in Spring of 2000...NASDAQ was where the real evaporation happened, as more than half of total NASDAQ value disappeared. IMnotsoHO, Clinton didn't have a lot to do with either the build-up of the bubble, nor the meltdown, although both happened while he was President. Bubble behavior is a mass psychological behavior that owes little to the actions of the Chief Executive.

See Tulipomania for a good exploration of a previous bubble.

http://www.amazon.com/Tulipomania-Coveted-Extraordinary-Passions-Aroused/dp/060980765X/sr=8-2/qid=1159942579/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-2720660-8775239?ie=UTF8&s=books

It's also worth remembering that 9/11 was a powerful suppressant of the stock market, especially during late 2001 and most of 2002.

Might want to keep those dates in mind if you bring this up with a wingnut. Your larger point remains quite valid. :-)

Bush is a fiscal douchebag and his drunken sailor spending habits have cost a lot of upside in the market. Notice that the market is only peaking now that interest rate increases appear to have leveled off (and oil is cooling down). Deficit spending drives up the cost of borrowing money, which dampens capital availability for business investment. These profligate repugs are on their way out...but we'll be paying for their recklessness for a long time to come, not only in national debt interest, but also in foregone appreciation in the stock market, and in growth of the GNP.

Peace.

[Canuckistanian]

5. Then how come I'm not making any more money?

Whether the markets go up or down it makes no difference to my daily life.

[Tempest]

6. Wasn't the high over 12,000?

I seem to recall it closed over 12,000 at least once during the 90s.

[customerserviceguy]

7. Isn't it nice to know

that rich people are getting richer?

Oh, wait, it's not happening yet, they need to trumpet all of these 'jump on the investment bandwagon now' stories, so that working class, and middle class suckers can buy these overinflated pieces of bootywipe (well, maybe I'm wrong there, they don't even give you certificates anymore), and THEN the rich guys will get richer...

At least my ex-wife the stockbroker is happy today...

[RobertSeattle]

8. I count 274 "New Closing Highs" Under Clinton

Clinton 274
Bush 1

Doing a heckuva job, W.

[anotherdrew]

10. SO WHAT? it'll be way down again soon enough. n/t

[wellst0nev0ter]

11. My, How Those "Experts" Forget About Inflation

Don't believe the enablers of the monied class.

[brentspeak]

12. Meanwhile, Whirlpool ships 1,200 U.S. jobs down to Mexico

But we're supposed to celebrate the gains of the investor class.

[pretzel4gore]

13. bush is doing a heckuva job...

don't know how, what with all the chaos in the world, globe warming and a too well armed overpopulation, suggestions of peak oil etc, plus the criminality of the bush regime???...hey! maybe that's it! maybe it's a conjob, just like the 2k/2k4 elections and the iraq war! maybe the bush criminals are pulling the peoples' leg again!
hmmm....

[stepnw1f]

14. Over-Inflated Economy.... (nt)

[YankeyMCC]

15. Meanwhile -

Forecast sees housing prices falling

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061003/ap_on_bi_ge/troubled_housing_5

(snip)
WASHINGTON - Housing prices, slumping after a five-year boom, are projected to decline in more than 100 of the nation's metropolitan areas, with the Northeast, Florida and California among the areas hardest hit.

The forecast by Moody's Economy.com, a private research firm, presents one of the starkest views yet of the housing slowdown that has been gathering force in recent months.

The West Chester, Pa., forecasting firm projects that the median sales price for an existing home will decline in 2007 by 3.6 percent, which would be the first decline for an entire year in home prices since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The forecast is included in a 195-page report, "Housing at the Tipping Point," which The Associated Press obtained before its general release on Wednesday.

The report projected that 133 of the nation's 379 metropolitan areas would suffer price declines. Those metropolitan areas with declining prices account for nearly one-half of the value of the nation's stock of single-family homes.
(snip)

Homes where most middle class workers have their wealth.

[Eurobabe]

16. Bub-bub-bbbubble...

Dang if the housing bubble AND the Dow pop at the same time = US meltdown

[leftofthedial]

18. it's a good time to be rich!

[YDogg]

19. Meanwhile, democracy is in its last throes ...

[Justyce]

20. They make it sound like everything's

doing so good... right before the election no less... but what about all the people's whose jobs have been outsourced in the last few years & all the businesses that have gone belly up. There are so many businesses here locally that have gone under, makes me wonder how all these people are surviving.

Guess the big stockholders are making all their money in the stock market now before the big crash...

[tinfoilinfor2005]

21. The market is anticipating a democratic congress taking over

in just a matter of weeks, so things are looking up. :)

Not that I'm an eternal optomist...

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :headbang: :headbang:

[dchill]

22. Great...

I feel richer already! Don't you? Soon, I know they'll use the profits to help out Social Security and Medicare - and finally, the long-awaited Free Drugs for Seniors program can get underway. Hip hip hooray!

[Earth_First]

23. Dow Jones UP! Gasoline prices DOWN! (...smells like an election year.)

:shrug:

[patrick t. cakes]

24. maybe

they will put some money back into our schools instead of into bombs, guns....oh wait that is our schools.

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. "soaring"?

My math suggests that this is a .0001% gain over 6 years - not adjusting for inflation.

[The Anti-Neo Con]

28. It's like gas prices...the Dow.

They are artificially pumping it up I think, so the GOP can say "Look at how great the economy is! Re-elect us!" The sheeple not knowing any better will look at these numbers and be wow'd. IMO, just as how gas prices are low, and will go up after the election, I expect the DOW to turn south after the election. Who knows, we'll just have to see.

[Neshanic]

29. Dow November 2006, 8,250. There's a big drop a comin'

The Dow is up. Everything else is not. Not a good thing.

[screembloodymurder]

31. Soars?

six years later it's up a fraction of a % and they describe it as soaring?

[ramapo]

33. Irrational exuberance?

I am continually amazed at the strength of a stock market considering that the economy is based on a continuing increase in public, private, and government debt along with a draining of manufacturing and technology jobs.