– Japanese Stocks Extend Overnight Plunge – Down Over 14% From Highs (ZeroHedge, May 27, 2013):
As if the overnight session in Japan was not bad enough, futures markets are indicating yet more weakness from the market that seemed (until 3 days ago) incapable of falling. With a 14.3% drop from its May 22nd highs, Japan’s Nikkei 225 is struggling to find buyers for this dip. What is interesting is the bid for European peripheral debt and equity markets this morning and the bounce in US futures (with no commensurate move in JPY which is hovering around 101). Gold and Silver are up around 1% with the USD unchanged. Treasury Futures imply a rise of 1-2bps in yield.
and just as the NKY saw its blow-off top, now US equities are ignoring the drop (for now)…
The US markets are controlled by a very few individuals controlling hundreds of millions of dollars in large funds. If you check the volume from 8 years ago, and compare it with today, the drop has been dramatic. 80% of all transactions in the US market are High Frequency, these individuals controlling these big funds buy and sell large amounts of securities in less than 8 seconds. It isn’t buying, it is skimming, and used to be illegal.
The NYSE has fallen from the largest market exchange in the world, to a rigged, untrustworthy joke. It is being kept unrealistically high by a few people, the real substance is gone, along with the rest of our economy.
On another subject, a little girl I know who worked her way through college, graduated with a BA last December has yet to get a single job interview. She graduated cum laude, did all the outside activities recommended, and cannot get a job. She is smarter than many, she worked her way through, she isn’t saddled with huge debt, but it is almost June, and she is pretty depressed. I could not tell her what I see……our entire economy has been gutted.
I have been urging her to study international law, and look beyond the USA, told my daughter the same thing. We are over the cliff, the virtual reality in which we live disguises the truth for a while longer…..but I don’t know how much longer it can keep going.
I remember what Marianne Eckles, FDR’s Fed Chairman said in 1951 when asked what caused the Great Depression. I was so impressed with his reply, I memorized it. Here it is, and it applies today, only the numbers are much larger.
“As in a poker game, when the chips get concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows can only stay in the game by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.”
I think we are close to the end, but I thought that a year ago, again six months ago…….but truth is always truth, and it will have its way.
Thanks for all you do.