Hmmm

[OntarioVanMan]

Tha stock market might not be the best to gauge the economy by BUT it is GOOD for those Americans that are funding their own pension plans...talked with 2 guys to-day and their 407K's are UP about 34% from last year....and that can't be a bad thing.......

 

[EagleRiverWI]

The stock market is a great guage of the economy. The Dow was under 800 when Reagan took over. There were a few (normal) corrections along the way, but the Dow still went all the way to 14000, where it peaked around the time of the elections 3 years ago. This anemic move up in the market is an upward correction in a bear market. It is nothing more than a chance to get out before the next move down.

 

[Crazynuff]

Tha stock market might not be the best to gauge the economy by BUT it is GOOD for those Americans that are funding their own pension plans...talked with 2 guys to-day and their 407K's are UP about 34% from last year....and that can't be a bad thing.......

My 401K never lost money . It didn't really make anything last year either but it's gaining now . I paid no attention to how much stocks "lost" when the market really fell . Those owning large amounts of stock may have lost earnings but you don't lose anything if you are holding stock . Your loss or gain is determined when you sell . (Unless of course the corporation goes bankrupt )

 

[greg334]

OVM, Stick it.

It is not a good gauge for the economy because it is a speculative market.

It is driven by emotion and trades paper.

It is rather virtual and sometimes gets into trouble on the mere mention of a problem BUT also can be inflated due to positive short lived news or spins on companies.

Remember Pets.com?

 

[greg334]

Stick it?

Not the market so much as what the companies are doing is what is more important....how they are cutting and trimming the workforce and how the re-organizing is going...not the stock itself...

Yes when you drill down into the individual companies, most of them you see improvements through management but not necessary by the economy. They may cut operating costs, trim the workforce and that may reflect on their stock but it may not mean there is a recovery right now.

We have seen a depression of the Dow when this all started but it was not a reflection of the individual companies rather the reflection of the emotion of seeing a bleak future short term. People who knew what was going on made money selling short which with a large sell off that happened depressed the market even further. Then when all was said and done, they were the ones who bought and that pushed the market up a bit. Maybe you read about who I am talking about, he has been one of the people saying this stimulus money is a good thing but does say how much hew is actually profitting from it. Nevertheless in recent weeks we have seen a rollercoaster ride of sorts with the market between the bad and good new - Debt, lay offs and such have a negtative effect on the market.