The Dow Has Lost 1,815 Points in the Past Three Trading Sessions: The Wall of Worry It Was Climbing Has Become a Wall of Chaos

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 29, 2020 ~ On Monday the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 650 points. On Tuesday, the Dow lost another 222 points. Yesterday, the Dow closed near the lows of the day, plunging 943 points by the closing bell. The pain was broad-based with only one of the Dow’s 30 component stocks closing in the green: that was The Travelers Companies, a property and casualty insurer. Market sentiment has turned bearish in no small part because of the unrelenting pandemic, the lack of a new stimulus bill from Congress, and the selloff in oil. All three are interrelated. As of 7:40 a.m. this morning, West Texas Intermediate (the U.S. domestic crude) was trading at $35.90, down 4 percent on the day and down 10 percent from its $40 handle last week. The price of oil is a heavy influencer of market sentiment for … Continue reading →

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Trump’s Campaign Will Celebrate a Big GDP Number Tomorrow: Here’s the Untold Story

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 28, 2020 ~ At 9:10 a.m. this morning, Dow futures were showing a loss of 623 points, signaling another nasty open for the stock market following Monday’s plunge of 650 points and a 222-point loss yesterday. The sell-off in futures this morning is being blamed on the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Europe and the U.S. and the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass a stimulus bill to cushion the coming economic fallout. But tomorrow morning will bring a report showing a huge pop in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the third quarter, and the Trump campaign can be expected to spin it into a rallying cry at campaign events. At 8:30 a.m. tomorrow, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a unit of the U.S. Department of Commerce, will report how the U.S. economy grew from July 1 through September 30. According … Continue reading →

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Congresswoman Katie Porter Says Fed Is Playing “Kingmaker on Wall Street” and “Appears Corrupt”

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 27, 2020 ~ Congresswoman Katie Porter has never met an overpaid Wall Street billionaire that she couldn’t reduce to a flummoxed whimperer within a few minutes. (See video clip below of Porter and Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, during an April 10, 2019 House hearing.) Porter has had the Chairman of the so-called “independent” Federal Reserve in her radar since he appeared at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on February 11 of this year. At the hearing, Porter held up a photo of Fed Chair Jerome Powell in black tie outside the mansion of billionaire Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. Porter said this: “Can you imagine how attending a lavish party at Jeff Bezos’ $23 million home, along with Jared and Ivanka and the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, might give off the sense to the public that … Continue reading →

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Paul Krugman Connects Ayn Rand to the Right Wing Not Wearing Masks: Here’s the Devastating Part of the Story He’s Missing

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 26, 2020 ~ On Friday, the print edition of the New York Times carried this headline over a column by Paul Krugman: “How Many Americans Will Ayn Rand Kill?” (The digital headline reads: “When Libertarianism Goes Bad.”) Krugman makes the following points: libertarian rhetoric is all about “freedom” and “personal responsibility.” Politicians in states filled with the Ayn Rand crowd refuse to issue mandates to wear masks, believing this comes under the Ayn Rand screed that individual choice must always triumph. Krugman correctly defines this failed logic as follows: “Many things should be matters of individual choice. The government has no business dictating your cultural tastes, your faith or what you decide to do with other consenting adults. “But refusing to wear a face covering during a pandemic, or insisting on mingling indoors with large groups, isn’t like following the church of your … Continue reading →

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Goldman Sachs Criminally Charged by Justice Department – and Its Stock Closes Up $2.49

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: October 23, 2020 ~ If you needed further proof that crime pays on Wall Street, look at the chart above. Goldman Sachs and its Malaysian subsidiary were criminally charged yesterday by the Justice Department, they admit to the charges, and its stock closed up on the day by $2.49. The U.S. Department of Justice is being played like a fiddle at a tractor meet. Those big white shoe law firms that handle increasingly dirty cases against the mega banks on Wall Street have twice, in a period of just three weeks, managed to get the Justice Department to announce settlements of landmark criminal cases against two of the largest banks on Wall Street on the day of presidential debates when the public and the media are not paying attention to Wall Street. On September 29, the day of the first presidential debate between President … Continue reading →

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