STOCK MARKET WATCH - Friday, 8 May 2020

[Tansy_Gold]

STOCK MARKET WATCH, Friday, 8 May 2020

Previous SMW:
SMW for 7 May 2020




AT THE CLOSING BELL ON: 7 May 2020


Dow Jones 23,875.89 +211.25 (0.89%)
S&P 500 2,881.19 +32.77 (1.15%)
Nasdaq 8,979.66 +125.27 (1.41%)

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Market Conditions During Trading Hours:

Google Finance
MarketWatch
Bloomberg
Stocktwits
Yahoo International
CNN Money Premarket

(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

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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. Unemployment hits 14.7% and the stock market goes up.

It's like workers don't matter to investors. Somebody should tell them another term for workers is customers. If customers don't have jobs, they can't spend as much.

[Tansy_Gold]

3. I don't think they care

I think it's reached the point where the billionaires are rolling in sooooooooo much cash, thanks to bailouts that are basically just printing presses spitting out money, that they don't care if the working classes spend money or not. They no longer rely on actual business to generate their income; they just trade stock with their friends and wait for a downturn in "the economy" so they can get more from the government.

An acquaintance owns a high-end service business that hasn't seen any drop in sales. His clients are all 1%ers, and he's probably a 2%er himself. His only complaint is that he had to cancel his daughter's three weeks in Europe HS graduation gift.

[progree]

2. Jobs report not as bad as expected, according to MarketWatch's poll of 15 economists

https://www.marketwatch.com/economy-politics/calendar

Nonfarm payrolls: expected: -22.1 M, actual: -20.5 M

Unemployment rate: expected: 15.2%, actual: 14.7%

The median forecasts that MarketWatch publishes each week in the economic calendar come from the forecasts of the 15 economists who have scored the highest in our contest over the past 12 months, as well as the forecasts of the most recent winner of the Forecaster of the Month contest.

After all, on Thursday we were reading that 33 million have applied for unemployment benefits in the last 7 weeks, and before that, we've had a week of news that 30 million had applied for unemployment benefits over the previous 6 weeks. So a job loss of 20.5 million is not a shock to anyone. Also, I've seen forecasts of near 20% unemployment, so a 14.7% rate is almost a relief. For over a month, literally absolutely every sentient being has been expecting a jobs report this bad or worse.

I think investors are expecting an almost V-shaped recovery. The up leg not as fast as the down leg, but still that it will all look pretty good in 2-3 months. I think as the drip drip of bad economic news and bankruptcies continues, as well as 2Q earnings reports, and people not suddenly coming back in pre-Covid numbers to crowd restaurants and malls, reality will sink in. And that's assuming no big uptick or 2nd wave of cases, which would upend everything.