Do you remember the go-go 90’s? Investment in stocks was easy. Just buy any dot-com or tech stock or a basket of them and watch your investment account skyrocket. Of course, that all came crashing down to reality in the year 2000. The .com boom became the .com bust and the skyrocket quickly returned to from whence it came — right before the NASDAQ reached its last all-time high. This week we had the dubious honor of reaching that pinnacle once again to a large degree on the back of one tech company.
Monday, stocks fell in Asia 1.1% but rose in Europe 0.8% and in the U.S. 0.5% on low volume — nudging the Dow and S&P 500 indices above their recent round-number benchmarks and the NASDAQ just missed. Gold descended back below its $1200 benchmark to top things off.
Tuesday, stocks snapped back in Asia rising 1.2%. In Europe, they rose a more modest 0.5%, while they moved little in the U.S on low volume. The NASDAQ managed to rise above 5000 again while the Dow and S&P dropped below their latest benchmarks.
IBM reported a 12% drop in revenue in 1Q but still closed positive for the day based on lowered earnings expectations. This “expectations” ploy like “forward earnings,” “non-GAAP,” and “one-time charges,” and is another device by the bubble cheerleaders to put lipstick on a pig. Genuine, honest earnings this quarter have been a dismal failure, yet in the news we hear meaningless statements like 75% of stocks “beat expectations.” These expectations are simply last-minute changes to make the rotten numbers appealing to idiots. Along with the stock buy-back ploy and negative interest rates this scenario is truly stunning.
Wednesday, stocks rose in Asia 0.5%, were nearly unchanged in Europe, and rose 0.4% in the U.S. on low volume. That was enough to push the Dow and S&P up above their respective benchmarks and give a margin of distance above 5000 for the NASDAQ. Precious metals lost 1.5% and their miners lost about twice that while the 10-Year U.S. Treasury bond yield rose 3% to close at 1.97.
Thursday, stocks fell in Asia 0.3% and in Europe 0.5%. In the U.S., stocks rose 0.5% on low moderate volume. The NASDAQ finally broke through its all-time high set back over fifteen years ago. Friday, stocks rose 0.7% in Asia and 0.4% in Europe while in the U.S. they changed little as a whole on low moderate volume. The big three indices did gain a bit more with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ posting new record closing highs. Of the big three, only the Dow remains (slightly) below the record mark. Precious metals fell about 1% and their miners dropped about twice that.