A Website About Nothing
I’m not a financial advisor, and I don’t suggest that you make any decisions based on anything I say or write, but I do have some thoughts on the financial markets, and I might put them in writing on occasion.
It’s Thursday — the day the Labor Department releases unemployment data. Since last week, another 6.6 million Americans have filed initial claims seeking unemployment benefits, bringing the total of new claims to about 16.8 million over the past three weeks.
Naturally, the S&P 500 is up almost 2% as I write this. Why is the market continuing to move up?
Yesterday, the S&P 500 jumped up 7.03%. Meanwhile, the United States coronavirus death toll has passed 10,000 and egg prices have tripled since last month (per J.R. Whalen of the Minute Briefing podcast).
Today, as I write this on the morning of April 7, S&P futures are up almost another 3%.
What’s going on here?
Continue reading “Is Now the Time to Get Back in the Stock Market?”
Depending on my mood, the rebooted Battlestar Galactica series (2003-09) is in my personal all-time top five. And right now, there’s just something about a small group of survivors stuck inside spaceships for an indefinite period of time that resonates with me.
But it’s not for everyone. Some people don’t like science fiction. It’s too unrealistic for them. And that’s fair. Thinking about Battlestar now, I am struck by one massively unrealistic aspect of the show — but it has nothing to do with science fiction.
It has to do with the supply chain.
Continue reading “Rewatching Battlestar Galactica During the Coronavirus Crisis”
On Friday, Feb. 21, the S&P 500 closed at 3,337.75. Six weeks later, on Friday, Apr. 4, the S&P 500 closed at 2,488.65. That’s a drop of 25.4% in just 30 trading sessions.
While it’s easy to assume that this marked decline is the sole result of the coronavirus crisis, I think we should at least question that assumption: Is the coronavirus really to blame for the stock market’s drop?
Continue reading “Is the Coronavirus Really to Blame for the Stock Market’s Drop?”
The coronavirus. The economy. Unemployment. Toilet paper shortages. These are what most United States citizens are worried about today.
But there’s something else Americans should be deathly worried about: Debt. Specifically, the leveraged loan market.
Continue reading “The U.S. Might Get Screwed by the $1.2 Trillion Leveraged Loan Market”
As I’m writing this on the morning of Thursday, Apr. 2, there are reports that this week’s jobless claims are around 6.6 million. Over the past two weeks, 9.9 million people have been laid off.
For the vast majority of Americans, the coronavirus crisis is more about the economy than public health. In fact, sometimes it’s even hard to remember that, while millions of people lose their jobs and watch the stock market drop, there are thousands of people dying and over 200,000 people fighting the virus with all the physical strength they can muster. Continue reading “The Physical and Economical Trauma of the Coronavirus Crisis”
Yesterday, I wrote a piece exploring my thoughts on the positive market movement we’ve recently seen, and I concluded on an optimistic note, highlighting what (to me) is the most compelling part of the bull thesis: American entrepreneurs will do everything they can to save the economy AND to get the coronavirus under control.
In this short piece, I want to touch on this theme just a little more.
I’m writing this piece early in the morning on Tuesday, Mar. 31, before the stock market opens.
Over the past five business days, the S&P 500 has rebounded magnificently. On Monday, Mar. 23, it closed at 2,237.40. Yesterday, it closed at 2,626.04.
I am conflicted about the market’s recent upward trajectory, and in this piece I explore why.
Continue reading “What to Make of the Recent Positive Movement in the Stock Market”
The first time I saw Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas was the summer after my freshman year of college, when I took an introductory film studies course. That was the same class that introduced me to Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.
In retrospect, that was a fucking great course.
I’m no expert in physics, but according to some guy named … checking Wikipedia … some guy named Albert Einstein, space and time are basically versions of each other.
Is that wrong? … checking Wikipedia … you know, I don’t know. Space and time might be versions of each other. That doesn’t sound totally incorrect.
Again, I’m no expert in physics. I’m not a physician.
Continue reading “What Can We Learn From China’s Coronavirus Economic Recovery?”