are we all stupid?

[Ted]

I'm getting educated.......I think.......

They can't put anything on the internet that isn't true.

 

[ATOMonkey]

The Stock Market long ago ceased to be a reliable indicator of the economy's health. it used to be that most of the Dow was made up of Companies that actually made something that could be sold, something tangible. Now it's made up mostly of financial magic companies or companies that simply exist to move money around in circles until it lands in their virtual bank account. It's all smoke and mirrors, people somewhere manipulating market swings with computer buttons..

Yep. When selling insurance on insurance becomes an actual financial product, we're pretty much ****ed.

 

[The-Last-Round]

I think it's the beginning of the bursting of a bubble in government bonds.

Perhaps the smart money is beginning to recognize US Treasuries represent a return-free risk (not the other way around like it has been for the last hundred years or so).

The next safest thing to government debt which will never be repaid in full is blue-chip stocks with dividends. Hence the big indexes rising while the techs and other small company indexes not moving as much.

Size of the respective markets is also important. The bond market is much bigger than the stock market. So it doesn't take much moving out of bonds to inflate the stocks more proportionally.

I think of it like a bunch of baloons of various sizes connected through a manifold. If you squeeze one of the really big baloons it doesn't change much in terms of percentage but it could easily double or tripple the size of a smaller baloon the air is getting squeezed into.

But I'm no expert, just an amatuer that likes to read.