Down goes the Dow

Can't write much now, but the wikipedia hfce page might be a good place to which to refer, along with housing start data, cost of medical insurance data, real inflation data, etc.

DJIA now up 265 with less than hour to go.

more good economic news today:

Housing starts climbed 6.3 percent to a 1.02 million annualized rate from a 957,000 pace in August as multifamily and single-family projects advanced, the Commerce Department reported today in Washington. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary sentiment index for October increased to 86.4, the strongest since July 2007, another report showed.

Gains in residential construction will help underpin the economic expansion as the recent drop in mortgage rates lifts home sales and gives builders reason to take on more projects. Other figures showing factory production rebounded last month and claims for jobless benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in 14 years added to evidence the turbulence in global markets has yet to depress the world’s largest economy.

“The fundamentals continue to look solid,” said Gus Faucher, an economist at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in Pittsburgh, who correctly projected an increase in homebuilding. “The turmoil in the market doesn’t reflect the underlying U.S. economic fundamentals.”

Sally Vixxxxens wrote:

Prediction: the market will end the week higher than it started.

Recent days have seen reaction due to fears in the absence of any news regarding earnings, etc. This week will see reaction based on fundamentals. If you've been waiting to buy, do so now.

Missed by less than 1%. Oh well. Glad I took advantage of the buying opportunity.

Maserati wrote:

I guess the good news is that there hasn't yet been a huge run on gold, and it might hold steady if they ram through more QE, meaning that the window of time to buy at a reasonable price might be extended.

Shouldn't gold go up when stocks come down?

agip, we will have to leave it at this, that I cannot continue to interpret news releases, metrics, and indicators for you, because you don't interpret, you just believe. Nor do you probably want me to complicate things for you, so I think we should just leave it as is.

Maserati wrote:

agip, we will have to leave it at this, that I cannot continue to interpret news releases, metrics, and indicators for you, because you don't interpret, you just believe. Nor do you probably want me to complicate things for you, so I think we should just leave it as is.

heh - nice passive aggressive escape route.

but I will accept your offer of an armistice and wait for the next honorable battle.

Futures up on Sunday night - feeling happy.

lol, it was a bit passive aggressive, wasn't it?

Anyway, the flight to quality continues. Europe is screwed.

agip wrote:

Futures up on Sunday night - feeling happy.

Not anymore. Big miss by IBM (7% of DJIA); down 15 ( 8% ) pre-market. Dow futures down 90+.

la gente está muy loca wrote:

agip wrote:

Futures up on Sunday night - feeling happy.

Not anymore. Big miss by IBM (7% of DJIA); down 15 ( 8% ) pre-market. Dow futures down 90+.

rats. I guess sometimes you do get fired for buying IBM.

Opening bell in 10 mins!

Positive start. Most Dow Jones stocks, S&P and Nasdaq posting modest gains.

IBM dragging down the Dow at -7.6%.

Down around 25 at lunch.

Pretty much even keel on everything except for, yes, IBM.

Nasdaq above its June 6 close, SP500 at May 23 value, Dow above August 7 close.

classic show of why the dow is silly

US stocks up 1.0% by the vanguard total us market index...but the dow was +.1% or something like that.

so...globally we are still 8.3% down from the highs, but we are also 4.6% up from the bottom.

I'd expect a big down day in the next couple weeks, esp if we get to the 50% retracement mark.

The DOW is no "sillier" than is any other index.

It is what it is, each has its strengths and weaknesses, depending on the use to which it is put.

I believe that in a thread like this, consistency is what is important. Since it started DJIA, it should continue DJIA, and the index under discussion shouldn't be cherry-picked for convenience. A couple of days ago when the SP500 went down more than the DJIA, I didn't switch for convenience.

Up 19 today to 16,400

Maserati wrote:

The DOW is no "sillier" than is any other index.

It is what it is, each has its strengths and weaknesses, depending on the use to which it is put.

I believe that in a thread like this, consistency is what is important. Since it started DJIA, it should continue DJIA, and the index under discussion shouldn't be cherry-picked for convenience. A couple of days ago when the SP500 went down more than the DJIA, I didn't switch for convenience.

Up 19 today to 16,400

boy are we disagreeing this month

the Dow IS silly. It is price weighted, meaning Visa, because its stock is $207, it is the largest component in the index. If Visa split its stock 2:1 then it would suddenly become exactly half as influential. That is silly and worthless and weak.

The DJIA was derived in a time when a clerk needed to add stock prices with a pencil to get to a index level. That's why it is so silly.

And I won't even start with how they put companies in and take companies out. Someone figured that if they just didn't tamper with it, the DJIA would be 30% higher or something like that.

As for constancy - f k5. He is truly one of the worst people I have ever communicated with. If he started talking about the dow then that is actually a good reason to STOP talking about the Dow.

so tell me what is the Dow's strength? why SHOULD we use it ?

The only answer I can think of is that generally people know that if the Dow went up 100 points, that is significant.

they aren't sure what it would mean if the SP 500 went up 100 points.

[quote]Maserati wrote:

I believe that in a thread like this, consistency is what is important. Since it started DJIA, it should continue DJIA, and the index under discussion shouldn't be cherry-picked for convenience. A couple of days ago when the SP500 went down more than the DJIA, I didn't switch for convenience.

agip wrote:

classic show of why the dow is silly

US stocks up 1.0% by the vanguard total us market index...but the dow was +.1% or something like that.

Dow was up .12%, yet 23 of 30 stocks in index were up .15% or more.

An equal weighted index would have been up .40%. Like I said earlier in this thread ; the Dow is an idiotic index, unless of course you have a position in DIA.