Meh.. most people in the U.S. will look at it as signs of a slow recovery, while 90% of those in this particular forum will think it's just the newest sign of gloom and doom to come. Just like 9k was, and 8k, etc.

Originally posted by D.E.M.

Well, whether you believe the markets are inflating artificially and we are in for a fall, or believe this is the first sign of recovery, you can't argue with the numbers.

You can't argue with numbers, of course. You can, however, certainly argue with the meaningfulness of the Dow when you factor in real inflation and look at it in other currencies or relative to various commodities or other forms of investment.

Also, the companies that make up the Dow have been changed many times over the years, including earlier this year. When you look at the broader market (S&P 500, for example) in terms of the "basket of curriencies" (i.e., Euro, Yen, etc.) that are rising in global importance, this year's stock boom has a rather more hollow ring to it.

So the banks get big profits as a result of the $700 billion the US government poured into them, that's not even including the $1 trillion plus of fed money that may or may not have been given to them independently. I say may or may not because even the fed claims to not know where the money went and since no one is willing to audit them we may never know the truth. What does the average person get? A devalued dollar and unemployment almost at 10%. These are great times... if your a banker.

[edit on 14-10-2009 by 4ortunate1]

Tptb are creating an illusion!!

2nd line

good good , the baankers make more profit , while american taxpayer is bleeding to death

Real goods, solid commodities are doing really well.

That's a bad sign. I feel a crash coming.

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Well our sales are up again nearly to the level of 3 years ago. The DOW is not the OLD DOW lots of changes in the way trading is done and who can do trading. Is it too high probably a thousand points or so but not a big deal

The Markets ARE NOT THE ECONOMY!

This is an almost completely different world to that of Main street economics. Any change in the markets currently is not reflective of the economy in general. When the markets are running normally, they do often reflect economic news based on the "real" economy (such as company collapses, buy-outs and contracts awarded by government and so on), but in this current scenario they are in it for themselves.

Any movement in the financial markets right now, as they are operating, is isolated from the real economy and based on a good or bad mood and "internal news", and not based on how the economics of a nation is doing.

That's my perspective anyway.
The economy could recover, but that all depends on how you describe a "recovery".

The PTB are stating that a recovery is as seen in the markets, this doesn't take into account the standard of living and employment figures.

We have to face facts here, taxes will go up, standards of living will plummet, crime will rise, services will be cut...
And this is all due to the money we will have to pay our governments for bailing out the greedy bankers.

In a nutshell; the economic divide between the rich and poor has become a massive chasm, and it'll continue to widen as we are forced to pay more tax and the wealthy banking elite continue to make money on the markets, and all thanks to the generosity of our governments.

Not for long though... this is no where near to being over...and the worst is yet to hit.... course I got no proof of that... but a strong gut feeling, and that is usually enough to make me pay attention.

Even the msm was reporting that the Fed had printed atleast $12 Trillion and that was early summertime or so. Not a word out of their talking heads since (maybe I missed it as I mostly watch CSPAN and some of Lehrer's show). Who knows how much they've printed by now despite warnings by the Chinese.

Just because these banks have less competition and are hoarding huge amounts of money, most people now realize that they have basically nothing to do with the state of the economy as foreclosures continue to skyrocket, unemployment continues to rise with no end in sight, and with 'business as usual' no significant, long-term job creation is happening.

The equity markets are just another giant bubble ready for the bursting when the insiders decide the time. Those that are smart should do like a number of hedge fund managers have done, use that money to prepare for some bad news.

End of the Dead Cat Bounce?

History shows that after a major fall in the stock market, any index will recover either 1/2 or 1/3 or the amount before plunging again.

The Dow Jones is within about 400 points of a 50% retracement (about 10,500), indicating a huge crash could be on the cards within days.