PrairiePundit

 DC Daily Journal: ... Steve Moore, an economic adviser for the Trump campaign, voiced concerns on Monday regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic agenda, attributing a sharp decline in U.S. stock markets to these apprehensions. The market experienced its worst opening since 2021, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 dropping by 3% and 3.4%, respectively. This downturn followed a Friday jobs report revealing a rise in the unemployment rate to 4.3%. Moore linked the 1,000-point market drop to growing political worries about Harris’ candidacy. “In the last two weeks, Kamala has been rising in the polls, making it a tied race,” Moore remarked. “People on Wall Street are concerned about the agenda she might bring to the White House.” Moore criticized Harris’ proposal to increase the capital gains tax and her support for President Joe Biden’s economic policies, suggesting these factors could negatively impact her election prospects. During a Saturday rally, ...

 NY Post: Target’s stock has lost a whopping $13.8 billion over the past two weeks, hitting its lowest levels in nearly three years as the “cheap chic” discount retailer continues to face backlash over LGBTQ-friendly kids clothing. Shares of the embattled chain sank 2.2% at $130.93 on Wednesday after dropping for eight straight sessions — the stock’s longest losing streak since November 2018 — giving the company a market capitalization of $60.4 billion. That’s off 19% from two weeks earlier on May 18, when the stock was trading at $160.96 on the eve of the crisis. It’s also the lowest levels Target shares have hit since the company was recovering from the depths of the pandemic in mid-2020. The ongoing losses are a result of an ongoing 14-day boycott that was triggered by Target’s release of “PRIDE,” an LGBTQ-friendly line that includes clothing for children and “tuck-friendly” women’s swimwear with “extra crotch coverage.” Wall Street is worried that Target will suffer the same fa...

PJ Media: ... Last year, Joe Biden was quick to take credit for any positive economic news (which was really the result of the economy reopening after the COVID shutdowns), including the stock market’s rise. “[The stock market] has hit record after record after record on my watch, while making things more equitable for working class people,” Biden said  back in January 2022 . Related:   Alibi Biden Didn’t Inherit a Bad Economy, He Created One Will he take credit for the current state of the stock market? It’s worth noting here that Donald Trump predicted the stock market would crash under Biden. Once again, he was right. ... Joe is always looking for a scapegoat for everything that goes wrong.  It would not surprise me if he tries to blame the decline on Trump too.  See, also: Houston ranked No. 1 city for the stock market in 2022 by CNBC In a Friday interview with the hosts of "Power Lunch" on CNBC, Mayor Sylvester Turner applauded Houston's economic growt...

 NY Times: After Stock Market’s Worst Start in 50 Years, Some See More Pain Ahead The stock market is on track for its worst first six months of the year since at least 1970. Bonds, which are seen as more stable, are in bad shape, too. The Biden economy sucks at this point of his administration.  It is another negative for an administration that is unpopular on several fronts.  Inflation which many believe was caused by the Democrats' big spending packages father the new administration came in is likely a factor in these results.  Bonds in particular are adjusted to reflect the yield after inflation.

 PJ Media: A key recession indicator in the bond market began flashing red on Monday morning as the yield on five-year Treasury notes increased to 2.64%, which was higher than the yield on 30-year notes, which dropped to 2.60%. This “inversion” happened for the first time since 2006. The two notes remained flattened as of Monday afternoon, with the five-year yield sitting at 2.55% and the 30-year at 2.57%. And other key indicators — including the spread between the two-year and ten-year yield — remained positive through Monday. Yield curve inversions show that investors have little faith in growth in the future. But with other indicators in flux, most investors see the inversion as signaling a possible recession in the near future. ... Bond traders facetiously call this a yield rally.   As the yield goes up the price for existing bonds with a lower rate goes down so that the new buyer of that bond will get the same yield as the new bonds.  The higher the current rate...

 Epoch Times: The head of a medical supplies company involved in the distribution and supply of monoclonal antibodies across southeastern and northeastern regions of the nation, told NTD in a Jan. 12 interview that government takeover of the monoclonal antibody supply chain has exacerbated backlogs and shortages. “The way the products are being distributed right now, relying on the government to determine who gets what, that process can be very lengthy in terms of time,” Dealmed CEO Michael Einhorn said. As a result, physicians are reporting “surpluses in certain areas, not enough in other areas” which has fueled frustrations when critical patients are not receiving antibodies for COVID-19 infections. While it’s unclear how the monoclonal antibodies are being rationed among states, Einhorn said that “commercialization” of these products should be allowed, so that infusion centers that need them can order in products based on “patient volume.” “If they have oversupply they wouldn’...

 Epoch Times: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday announced his office will investigate trading platforms after they restricted access to purchases of certain stocks like GameSpot on Thursday. “Today I’m launching an investigation into [trading platform Robinhood] and hedge funds who rigged our free [market] for the benefit of Wall St elites,” Paxton, a Republican, wrote in a tweet. “The US econ should be transparent, open. This week’s coordinated corruption by a cabal of oligarchs shows it isn’t. I’ll help fix that.” The Epoch Times reached out to Robinhood for a comment. In the letter , Paxton issued demands to the chat app Discord, Citadel, TD Ameritrade, TD Bank, E-Trade, WeBull, M1 Holdings, and the Apex Clearing Corporation “regarding the prohibition of certain stock purchases” that required “higher-margin reserves for trading certain companies” on the stock market. “Wall Street corporations cannot limit public access to the free market, nor should they censor discuss...

 Jeff Carlson: Investors and observers alike have been watching the incredible price movement and volatility escalation of the retail gaming company GameStop (GME). On Jan. 11, the stock closed just under $20 per share. On Jan. 28, it traded as high as $450 per share intraday and closed at $193.60. The stock is currently trading around $350 per share in after-market hours. At the heart of the incredible price movement lies an intense tug of war between retail investors and at least one large hedge fund—although there have been a number of other hedge funds circling the situation and involved in a variety of capacities. Melvin Capital had established a large short position in GameStop, betting the company’s stock price would fall. Retail investors discovered this and began a buying spree of epic proportions, driving the price of GME up in the face of Melvin’s short position, leaving the fund vulnerable to huge losses as it had bet GameStop’s stock would fall. The situation quickly ...

The Hill:  Stock futures rose Sunday evening in overnight trading shortly after President Trump made an appearance in a motorcade outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he is recovering from the coronavirus. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 150 points, while S&P 500 futures and the Nasdaq 100 futures both rose about 0.5 percent. President Trump tweeted a video earlier Sunday, saying he was "getting great reports from the doctors." He then waved to supporters outside the hospital in a brief outing in a motorcade with Secret Service. Replying to a tweet asking why Trump, while sick with COVID-19, would leave the hospital, Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal tweeted: "Because futures start trading at 6pm East Coast time." ... The markets as a whole appear to be concerned about Trump's condition and the uptick appears related to his improved condition. 

AP/Houston Chronicle: Global stock prices gained Monday after Japan’s central bank boosted support for financial markets as more governments prepared to reopen economies that were shut down to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Tokyo's benchmark surged 2.7% and European markets opened higher. Shanghai, Hong Kong and Sydney also gained. Investors are looking ahead to meetings of U.S. and European central bankers this week for additional measures to reverse the deepest global slump since the 1930s. Evidence is mounting that the damage is even worse than expected. The Bank of Japan said it will inject money into the financial system by purchasing an additional 15 trillion yen ($140 billion) of commercial paper and bank loans. The bank also scrapped its ceiling on purchases of government debt. Investors appear to be looking past the outbreak to figure out which companies can survive and prosper after conditions improve. China, where the pandemic began in December, has reopened...

Bloomberg/Fuel Fix: Saudi Arabia and Russia’s price war is handing over a multi-billion dollar profit opportunity to the world’s largest oil traders. With both Riyadh and Moscow outdoing each other by pumping more oil into an already flooded market, crude prices have flipped. A new price structure, called a contango, allows the traders to make easy money by buying crude cheap, storing it, and selling it forward. “Full contangos are back in,” said Olivier Jakob, founder of energy consultant Petromatrix GmbH and a former oil trader. “The industry and traders will load up all storage capacities on land or afloat.” With the contango widening by the day as Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates announce big production hikes, oil traders are rushing to profit. Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil trading house, has already booked tanks in South Korea to store crude, for example. And others are also booking tankers to turn them into floating storage facilities, ...

Forbes: Michael Milken: Economy Will Rebound Fast From COVID-19 ... Capitalism, reasonably regulated, Milken reminded us, has remarkable recuperative powers. The COVID-19 crisis has created the lowest mortgage rates in U.S. history. Oil and gas are priced almost at the lows of early 2009. “The cost of living is going down. Purchasing power is going up.” Milken said, which will lead to a faster recovery of any recession caused by COVID-19. ... The volatility of the markets right now are based on the fear of unknowns.  Eventually, they will recover and I expect that the recovery will be robust.  It is also likely that it will happen well before election day in 2020.

CNBC: President Donald Trump’s stock market stacks up well against the majority of his presidential predecessors. The S&P 500 has returned more than 50% since Trump was elected, more than double the 23% average market return of presidents three years into their term, according data from Bespoke Investment Group dating to 1928. The bellwether index gained more than 28% this year, well above the average 12.8% return of year three for past U.S. presidents. ... Despite the volatility from the U.S.-China trade war, 2019 has been a year of all-time highs for the major stock averages. The S&P 500 crossed 3,200 for the first time ever last week, hitting its seventh round-number milestone of 2019. While business investment slumped due to uncertainty surrounding the world’s two largest economies, public market investors remained confident enough to put money into stocks. ... Markets were also helped by one of the tightest labor markets in history, with the unemployment rate cur...

NY Times: Chile’s Voters Extend Latin America’s Rightward Shift With the presidential election going to the conservative Sebastián Piñera, the left lost its final shot to hold on to power in one of the region’s economic and diplomatic heavyweights. Chile has become an economic heavyweight by adopting free-market economics based on the University of Chicago model championed by Milton Freeman.  We have seen how socialism works in Venezuela and Cuba and how free markets work in Chile.  It takes willful ignorance to continue to support the evils of liberalism.  When will liberals in this country wise up and stop supporting the failed policies of Democrats?

Bloomberg/Fuel Fix: Carbon markets, the free-enterprise solution to saving the world from global warming, are now in danger themselves. The idea was simple enough: Set a cap on carbon emissions, issue enough permits to allow power plants, refineries and the like to stay within those limits and then shrink the cap over time to achieve reductions. The companies whose emissions fall fastest can sell their permits for a profit to slower responders — call it a reward for good behavior. The reality, though, is more complex. Undercut by a lack of political will on the size of caps and overtaken by costly new environmental mandates, carbon markets in the U.S., Europe and Asia are collapsing, with prices so low they’ve become virtually valueless. The credits auctioned in the U.S. Northeast in June, for instance, sold for just $4.53 a short ton, a 40 percent drop from December. “Climate policy has been muddled and messy,” said Michael Grubb, a professor at University College London’s Ins...

ABC: ABC News' Yunji de Nies and Jake Tapper report: At his daily briefing today, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the stock market "can be a lagging economic indicator." Many economists consider the stock market a leading economic indicator as it tends to rise and fall ahead of the broader economy. Unemployment is traditionally a lagging indicator. For instance, Bernard Baumohl, Chief Global Economist of Economic Outlook Group has said, "History has shown us time and time again that recessions end and recoveries begin long before we see an improvement in the labor market ... After the 2001 recession concluded in November, joblessness continued to rise until the middle of 2003. We will almost certainly have another jobless recovery for many months once this recession ends, which we believe will be in the second half of the year." ... This is as bad as Obama's "profits to earnings ratio" gaffe. The stock market usually is looking roughl...

David Hirsayni: There are few things more satisfying than unloading your righteous rage on one of those insatiably greedy Wall Street bankers. We have Gordon Gekko to blame. Barack Obama has George W. Bush. So while the president is busy radically centralizing the nation's economy, he, in a superbly eloquent and inspirational pitch, always reminds us that nothing is his fault. If Washington had a buck to spare, it still wouldn't stop at the top. But let's, for the sake of argument, concede that presidents trigger recessions. Well, then, we also must concede that nearly every initiative enacted in the first 50 days by the Obama administration has exacerbated what Bush started. Isn't it too early to judge? It would be if Obama had not accelerated the timeline with his "ambitious" agenda, including the partisan trillion-dollar project masquerading as a stimulus bill and the deficit-busting budget. It would be if Obama had not worked early to support agen...

Ben Stein: Okay. Let me put on my weather-beaten economist's hat again and try to explain something important. As we all know, we are in a recession that is bad and getting worse. So, basic question: How do we get out of it? Well, look at it this way. The economy grows because of two factors: M, which is the quantity of money in the economy, which is controlled mostly by the Federal Reserve; and V, the velocity of money, or the rate at which it changes hands - or, as one might say, the speed with which it is borrowed, invested and spent. Mr. Ben Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve, has been doing a fine job of keeping the supply of money pumped up. Score one for him. But the velocity of money has slowed dramatically. People at every level are afraid to spend because they fear conditions will get worse and they're going to need the money in the future just to survive. So they don't spend it. One of the big contributors to fear is the big goombahs in the society saying how ...

Michael Goodwin: He hasn't called anyone an "evildoer" or denounced an "axis of evil." But make no mistake: President Obama is putting together an enemies list. Strangely, though, those on it are not terrorists or foreign dictators. They are mostly Americans lucky enough to have succeeded through capitalism and democracy. In the President's words, they are guilty of being "special interests" and "lobbyists." The Bush-era tax cuts were merely "an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy" and he will bring fairness by raising taxes on "the wealthiest 2% of Americans." His barbs flow almost daily, faulting corporate leaders for "greed" and shirking "a sense of responsibility." And sometimes he suggests the problem is criminal, as when he defended his plan for an expanded government push into health insurance as necessary "to keep the private sector honest." Less than half-way through wha...

NY Times: The banking giant Citigroup commanded a stock price of $55 just two years ago. But at one point Thursday, as markets hurtled to their lowest close in 12 years, the shares were worth less than an item at the Dollar Store. After months of breathtaking declines, this is what Wall Street has come to: Blue-chip companies, once considered safe investments and cornerstones of the economy, are akin to penny stocks . The bear market is tightening its grip, despite efforts by the government to support the economy and some of its biggest companies. Fears about the depth and breadth of the recession drove the Dow Jones industrial average down another 4 percent on Thursday, bringing its losses so far this year to 25 percent — just shy of the 33 percent decline recorded for all of 2008. ... The number of companies trading at $10 or less on the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has increased tenfold since the market reached a peak in October 2007. And with no end in sight to the downwa...