The Dow ended the week 1.7 percent below where it began. The S&P rose 1.6 percent on Friday but still was down 0.6 percent for the week, failing to fully recover from stock prices’ plunge in earlier trading sessions.
The NASDAQ was the week’s winner, up 2.3 percent to break a three-week downtrend.
The word on the Street is that investors are concerned about the wavering U.S. and European recovery, new COVID outbreaks in Europe, the virus’s possible widespread return in the U.S., and re-imposed shutdowns in various locations, analysts said.
Today, the Dow and S&P 500 fell 0.05 percent and the Nasdaq was down 0.03 percent because, according to the business media, “concern over the coronavirus outbreak in New York City.”
Gold also fell last week. The business media said the price was falling because the dollar got stronger and inflation was expected to go lower.
Or… did gold prices fall because the Money Mobsters pushed down the price, so gamblers would keep placing their bets in the stock market casino?
Indeed, with the tourism industry attached to a COVID ventilator in hopes of staying alive, stocks for cruise lines – which were hammered by the shutdown – quieted last week on the news that companies began to unveil “safety measures” that will convince customers to come on board and take a trip.
On Friday, Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings’ stock price jumped 14 percent and Carnival’s 9.7 percent.
Yesterday and today, gold and silver prices bounced back sharply and the dollar dropped on the news that a fiscal stimulus will be injected into the American economy. Today, gold rose to its highest in a week and silver spiked over 3 percent as the dollar weakened and hopes rose for more cheap money being pumped into the system with fiscal stimulus.
We maintain our forecast for sharply rising gold and silver prices for the foreseeable future.
Oil Blues
Falling more than 3 percent today, Brent crude oil maintained its downward $40 range it has been drifting in for month. The reason the Presstitutes gave for it falling today was, according to CNBC, “on worries about the outlook for fuel demand as Europe and the United States grappled with a surge in new coronavirus infections.”
TREND FORECAST: Again, as detailed in this Trends Journal and many others, “cases” do not equal deaths. Moreover, considering most western nations have only partially opened up their economies after being locked up for several months, the economies have not – and, for a long time, will not – recover from those harshly imposed measures.
New draconian lockdown rules will drive nations deeper into the “Greatest Depression” while putting more downward pressure on commodities that fall as economies grow weak.
Not So Good News
Orders for durable goods rose 0.4 percent in August, the commerce department reported, weaker than gains in earlier months and less than analysts had expected.
The market “is in a bit of a holding pattern,” said David Coombs, an asset manager at Rathbone Brothers who was quoted by Dow Jones. “I don’t think there are any key factors that have changed.”
Investors will remain cautious until after the election and until Congress decides on a final version of a new stimulus package, i.e., money pumping scheme that will increase the budget deficit, push the dollar and gold and silver prices lower … if they are not manipulated downward by the money mobster criminal gangs.
The package will come – the Fed, as well as businesses and state governments which are demanding it – but the final size is uncertain. Congressional Democrats have proposed a bundle between $2.2 and $2.4 trillion, Republicans have drawn a line at $1 trillion, and President Trump says he would support a plan to spend around $1.5 trillion.
From the crowd that was pumping the lines of a “V” shape recovery, Mr. Coombs declared, “Until we get a vaccine for the population at large, the markets will remain unpredictable.”
Financial stocks on Europe’s Stoxx 600 index dropped 0.1 percent on Friday and will end the month at its worst since March. The European index has lost about 3 percent in September.
Exchanges in Italy and Germany also lost 1 percent last Friday.
Investors were spooked as the Bank of England (BOE) revealed it is mulling a negative interest rate and how it could be “implemented effectively.”
TREND FORECAST: We forecast the BOE will institute negative rates as the nation enters a new coronavirus lockdown phase and its economy sinks lower.
More Cheap Money
Britain also has given up its current broad wage subsidy program and will adopt a more tailored, German-style plan to subsidize wages for workers who put in at least a third of their pre-pandemic hours. People who do not work will not be eligible.
Absent another money pumping scheme, some two million or more people are expected to be out of work altogether.
“I cannot save every job,” said the U.K.’s treasury chief Rishi Sunak.
TRENDPOST: Considering the dire economic fundamentals and the characters starring in the 2020 Presidential Reality Show®, we forecast a high probability of U.S. and global stock markets crashing deep into bear territory by year’s end.
TRENDPOST: For a head-up on where the markets are going and to help you prepare for the future, be sure to read Gregory Mannarino’s new article, “MARKETS: DAY OF RECKONING.”
