The Buzz on Business for August 16th, 2024 

We studiously avoid politics on the Buzz on Business podcast, and we do this for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a divisive topic and we aim to unite everyone under the banner that investing is properly a do-it-yourself enterprise. 

In addition, if politics is what you’re looking for, you have lots of alternatives. We don’t need to wade into that. 

Finally, our personal politics is mostly none-of-the-above, a pox on both your house's philosophy and not one that would attract a big audience. We believe in balanced budgets, low inflation, free minds, and free markets. 

But politics and the financial markets do intersect, of course. For example, we always report on the activities of the Federal Reserve, including the Chairman’s press conference and his testimony before Congress. Some days, politicians make proposals that demand a comment from us, or we just wouldn’t be doing our job. Yesterday was one of those days. 

Yesterday, Vice President Harris unveiled her plan to fight inflation. In a word, we opposed the Vice President’s plan and think it would actually be counterproductive. It would cause prices to rise. 

So, over the next week or so, we’re going to look carefully at the Vice President’s plan and at her thinking on inflation generally. We will attempt to Steelman the Harris plan and look at the data that supports it. We will also, look at the data, at history and at economic theory in order to argue that it is a bad idea—a bad idea if controlling inflation is your objective. 

We will extend our scrutiny to President Trump and his plan for inflation should he announce one.  

We’ll do this over the course of three or four episodes, within the confines of our regular format and as events permit. 

We’ll start Monday. We hope you’ll join us! 

Stock Market Report 

Stocks gaped up at the open, rallied across the board and closed at their highs of the day, on Thursday after the release of some bullish economic news. We’ll take the win but would have liked to have seen a stronger advance/decline line on higher volume. 

• The Dow Jones Industrials rallied for a 1.4% gain. That’s 555 points. And it closed at 40,563. 

• The S&P 500 was up 88 points and closed at 5,543. A 1.6% gain. 

• The NASDAQ Composite was up a stout 2.3%. That’s a gain of 402 points. And it closed at 17,595. 

• And the small caps had a really good day. They were up 2.50%, that’s 51 Russell 2000 points and they start the day today at 2,135. 

Bond Market Report 

Interest rates, which have been in a steady downtrend for the last four months or so, were up and up sharply on the session yesterday. 

• The yield on the 2-year treasury was up 13 basis points and it closed back above 4% at 4.095%. 

• The 20-year was up 6 ticks and closed at 4.280%. 

Oil, Gold, and Bitcoin 

• Oil was up on the stronger than expected economic news. It gained $1.01 and a barrel now changes hands at $77.99. 

• Gold was up $8.00, and a troy ounce will now set you back $2,493.50. 

• And Bitcoin had another rough day. It was off $1,907.19, and at 4:00 PM ET stood at $57,056.26. 

Economic Data: A Mixed Bag 

A ton of economic data was released during the day on Thursday. It wasn’t bad, in fact it was pretty good. Mixed, but pretty good. 

• Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims came in well below expectations. This report has been bouncing around a fair amount lately and unemployment claims have been in an uptrend, but these numbers are good. 

• Retails Sales and Core Retail Sales came in well above expectations. This was the report that probably set off the fireworks on Wall Street. 

• But the news out of manufacturing, well, not so much. 

• The NY Empire State Manufacturing Index exceeded expectations, but not by much. 

• The Philly Fed Manufacturing Index was horrible. So bad, we thought for sure it was a misprint.  

• And Industrial Productions, another peak inside the manufacturing sector, likewise missed expectations.  

• Manufacturing continues to break hearts. 

• And the Atlanta Fed’s GDP Now also missed expectations. 

• Today, we get  

• Building Permits 

• Housing Starts 

• And the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey. 

Any of it—all of it—could move the markets on what is likely to be a thinly traded, mid-summer Friday session on Lower Manhattan. But whatever happens, we will read, watch, listen and analyze so we can report all of it to you, here on the Buzz.