Someone I love is bi-polar. It serves as a real challenge for them, even on medication.
The stock market has been strongly bi-polar but its cycles are extremely short, lasting only hours. That makes life very interesting for those of us who manage people’s retirement money.
In 48 hours this week the market shot up 4%. You can go months without seeing that kind of move. In the next 26 hours it decided to go down -3%. Then it abruptly changed its mind again and in less time than some people take between meals it went up 3%. The moves are exaggerated in small stocks.
Investors may want a Dramamine. Some are deciding that spending a month on a roller coaster is only for fanatics like the couple that got married on one.
Don’t believe that most institutions are happy about that. Most hedge funds are losing their shirts this year and mutual funds have seen investors taking money out this summer.
The good news is that there are some really good values out there. More on that Monday.
Here are the #s:
S&P 500 1.5%
DJIA 1.2%
Small stocks 2.5%
Europe – mixed
Asia – down
Gold 3%
Gold miners 2.3%
Bonds – nice day today for all, especially for high yield bonds that even been dropping recently. They were up 1% today.