Ringing in a Decade of Stagflation – Ep. 523

Second to Last Trading of the Decade... All of the major U.S. stock market indexes finished the second to last trading day of this year in the red. Although, it's not just the second to last trading day of the year, it is the second to last trading day of the decade. Technically speaking, I know the next decade doesn't really start until January 1, 2021, but practically speaking, it's going to be the 20's. So, to me, that's a new decade. Closing With a Gain of About 30% in the S&P So let's just say tomorrow is the last trading day of the decade.  And even if we get another decline tomorrow, I don't know what's going to happen - maybe we'll get a bounce, but I doubt it will be significant enough to turn the tide on this bull market or this bubble - bear market rally - whatever you want to call it - but it looks like we're going to close the year with a gain of about 30% in the S&P 5000. Not our Strongest Year in Recent Memory That's going to put the market with its best annual increase since 2013 - which, of course is not that long ago. So we did have a rise in 2013 when Obama was President, where the S&P had a year that was as good as this year, with Donald Trump as President. So clearly, it's not simply a case that we have Trump as President and that's why we have such a strong market. We've  had plenty of years where the market was this strong and Trump wasn't President. In fact, Barack Obama was President.  One of the reasons that the market was so strong this year is because it finished last year so weak.  I think the 4th quarter of last year we were down 13 - 14% - but it was a very big decline which would have been much much bigger but for that record surge the day after Christmas.  Remember that Boxing Day - I think the Dow was up about 1,000 points.