U.S. MARKETS

America is a country in crisis.
Riots, looting, protests, vandalism sweeping across the nation: Police vs. the People following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin who, as videos show, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
Already economically reeling from the government imposed lockdown, and with some 40 million out of work, with riots and violence intensifying, cities and states across the nation are now on curfew… shutting down economically shattered businesses that just began to partially reopen.
Yet, Wall Street, artificially propped up by the Federal Reserve monetary methadone injections, as it has been for decades, has no connection to Main Street.
Making the disconnect perfectly clear, Jim Cramer, CNBC’s “Mad Money” host, said today, “At the end of the day, the market has no conscience. Investors are simply trying to make money.”
While Floyd’s alleged crime, buying a pack of cigarettes with an alleged fake $20 bill, was the cause for his arrest and murder, in America, Bankster Bandits and the Wall Street Gang are “too big to jail” for their economic crimes of stealing trillions and destroying the lives of millions.
Despite the week of social unrest, which we forecast will continue to wrack the nation throughout the summer, today the Dow closed up 267.63 points, the Nasdaq Composite rose 91 points, and the S&P 500 climbed 8 percent, pushing it up more than 40 percent from its late-March intraday low.
Gold prices fell some $13, closing at $1,725.40 an ounce.
Bitcoin is up 329 to 9,699; yesterday, it fell to 9,498, continuing to trade in its recent high range.
Brent crude closed up 3.44 percent at nearly $40 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate spiked 4.12 percent closing $36.90 a barrel.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: As Trends Journal readers have long known, and guest contributor Gregory Mannarino continues to document, stock markets are Federal Reserve rigged and unrelated to economic fundamentals.
The other phony market boosters over the past few weeks are the headline news that someone might have a COVID vaccine, so the markets go up; the vaccine trial failed, so the markets go down. Because of the cheap, fake money the Fed has poured into the market, gamblers can play the headlines without much cost.
 To judge the real state of the economy, watch the prices of gold and Bitcoin. As they hold current levels or continue to rise, they signal how weak and precarious the economy really is.
Despite gold’s selloff today, Gerald Celente’s forecast holds: When gold solidifies above $1,740 per ounce, it will spike to $2,000 and above. Current trend indicators are that it will hit those marks before this year is over.
Oil prices bumped up last week as inventories reportedly shrank and easing of lockdowns in several countries began to stir manufacturing activity and more travel. Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, advanced 1.8 percent on 26 May; crude for July delivery in the U.S. rose 3.3 percent the same day.
Prices also were buoyed by Russia’s oil minister, who said he expects rising demand and falling supplies to bring the world’s oil market into balance in coming months, a view echoed by several analysts ahead of this month’s OPEC meeting when members will discuss future production levels.
TRENDPOST: As March ended, analysts thought profits for companies that make up the S&P 500 index would fall 1.8 percent in 2020. Now that those companies have reported first-quarter earnings, those same analysts foresee the companies’ profits plummeting by as much as 20 percent this year.
Banks and companies in entertainment, travel, and discretionary consumer spending led the way down… and with the slew of new social distancing, mask wearing, and other government imposed restrictions, revenue will not bounce back to pre-COVID lockdown numbers.
Yet, stock prices continue to float above the dismal economic headlines.
While some analysts think markets already have priced in the bad news or are taking a long view toward a recovery next year, share prices actually are basking in the Fed’s seemingly permanent willingness to feed the markets cheap money.
Because current stock prices are not based on fundamentals, they will stay disconnected from larger realities as long as the Fed props them up – a policy that will, at some point, change suddenly in the face of additional cataclysmic socioeconomic and geopolitical events.