What's going on in the market today?
DJI, NASDAQ, and S&P are down 0.8, 0.93, 0.97 percentage points respectively. Following the sharp drop during the opening this morning, the market has remained relatively flat, trending slightly higher from the days lows.
I figured given the news regarding the unemployment report released last Friday and the growing debt crisis fears that the market was going to be down BIG today. What's keeping it together?
Go Rick!
What did you expect, like a 20% drop? God damn.
No, something along the lines of 2% to 3%.
From a shitty jobs report? A month's jobs report would not move the needle that much. This isnt 2009 where it was common to see 300+ point swings each week...
Everyone felt better about the news after stuffing their faces with those delicious Reeses peanut butter eggs yesterday. Makes everything not so bad
but seriously, the long weekend likely softened the blow amongst other world markets events
I think what's keeping it together is the fact that the markets have been so strong over the past few months. Yeah, the March jobs report was pretty bad, but at the same time the market is still taking into account all the positives from the start of the year. Consumer confidence has been rising, jobless claims have been falling, car sales have been higher, and pump prices should ease a little as oil prices fell 2% today. Today's payroll report definitely wasn't a good sign, but it's not enough to undo all the confidence that the past few months have brought. If next month reveals another disappointing report, then things could really start to falter.
Lets not get into a political debate here.
To answer the OP's question, many people think the bull market still has room to run. (although some also are pessimistic too) The majority of positions among families is still in less riskier assets like fixed income, which pays close to no return (actually negative) as I am sure you know. Therefore, moving forward, I believe more people will come into the equity markets and start buying if Bernanke stays true to his word and keeps rates low through 2015.
Also, a big catalyst again for the markets moving forward is the possibility of QE3. Sure the unemployment number sucked, but this is a relatively small hiccup in the amount of positive data we've seen YTD. I think Bernanke will keep QE3 on the table until employment drops ~1.5%.
Also, we are extremely close to an election - look at history. I am not sure of the figures off the top of my head but the majority of the time, the year before an election is often incredibly bullish.
Finally, with earnings season upon us and analyst lowering expectations, it will be easier for companies to beat them and fuel the markets in an upward direction. We will see tomorrow with AA reporting at 5.
Just as Jesus rose on the third day, the markets too shall rise.
RICK SANTORUM 2012
The market hasn't fallen off a cliff because Kweku and I have been loading up on e-minis since noon
Investors have to return some videotapes
I want chaos!
Can't embed images - fail.
It's uncertainty, people don't know whether to be disappointed or glad that QE is back on the table.
Sometimes optimism works. The saying that when you're down, you have nowhere to go but up makes people hope that things will get brighter. That and the fact that elections are coming up and people will pin their hopes on their candidates.
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