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The "Perfect Storm of Stupid" and other Coronavirus stock market theories

Why has the stock market gone up dramatically (after initial plunge) during a pandemic?Some ideas… courtesy of Planet Money The “Perfect Storm of Stupid” Theory Basically, Americans are super bored. They’re at home. Sports are canceled. The kids are screaming. The casinos are closed. And around 800,000 additional people have decided to plop down money…

What’s happening in the stock market during coronavirus?

    THROUGH THE END OF MAY – The S&P 500 is down 5.0% YTD (total return) through 5/29/20. Just 121 stocks in the index are up YTD. The S&P 500 consists of 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity and industry group representation. It is a market value weighted index with each stock’s weight in the index proportionate…

Why is US stock market doing OK while the economy is tanking?

Investors flock to US equities Investors worldwide are looking past economic data and coronavirus statistics to seek haven in US equities. Emerging-market equities are the cheapest against the S&P 500 in 12 years, while the MSCI USA Index is near a 20-year high against the rest of the world. Full Story: Bloomberg (tiered subscription model)…

Stock Market Volatility

The wild swings in the financial markets are enough to scare any investor. With huge drops followed by big gains and then further drops… what is an investor to do?First let’s review what’s happening. It is NOT individual investors making buy/sell decisions that drive financial markets. It’s the computerized models of the major investment houses…

Stock market perspective

IS THE STOCK MARKET swoon messing with your head? You don’t want to make this market decline any worse than it has to be. To that end, here are 10 steps that’ll help preserve your sanity and your portfolio:(Quoted directly from Jonathan Clements.  Follow Jonathan on Twitter @ClementsMoney and on Facebook. His most recent articles include…

Volatility: Financial markets are going crazy… what to do now

With the wild swings in financial markets, how concerned should you be about your investments?First, remember that any money you expect to need within the next five years should never be invested in the stock market!This is not like the 2008 financial crisis. It’s been an 11 year bull market so too many investors have…

Where would the stock market be if Hillary had won?

Trump likes to take credit for the stock market gains during his first year in office but analysts disagree. As James Mackintosh explains in The Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2018“Many of the market-moving changes since the U.S. presidential election would have been just the same. Most important among them: The global economic rebound started before…

How to Protect Your Retirement Savings From a Crash

“Since the market hit rock bottom about eight years ago, it has been steadily improving, and investors have seen skyrocketing stock prices and annual returns. Unfortunately, those spectacular averages won’t last forever, and the investment pros have some pretty pessimistic predictions for the future,” according to Katie Brockman writing for The Motley Fool. “So what…

How long will this bull market in stocks last?

The “bull market for stocks is 94 months old, making it the second-longest in modern history” according to Jason Zweig, writing in The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 21, 2017. In his weekly “Intelligent Investor” column Zweig explains the results of recent research showing that investors are affected by the optimism of other investors, often resulting…