A Tasty Candidate Word Salad
Posted on August 31, 2015 by Brad Hoppmann
Last Monday morning, stocks experienced a near-1,100-point downdraft in the first five minutes of trade.
Things were far calmer this Monday, although the Dow gave back about 0.70%, or 115 points, as the closing bell sounded. All told, the Industrials lost 6% for the month.
Although the extreme volatility isn’t what it was a week ago, that doesn’t mean that the selling we saw last week is over.
Some are saying that, after last week’s near-capitulation sell-off and subsequent Wednesday and Thursday surge, it feels like the markets have put in a near-term bottom.
Yet I suspect that call is at best premature, and at worst dead-wrong.
Today’s selling was prompted by everything from more weakness in Chinese stocks last night to new comments from Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer suggesting an interest rate hike is still on the table for September.
It’s no secret that I am very concerned about that latter possibility, and what kind of effects it could have on the markets.
For investors worried about what’s next, I am right there with you.
Given the current circumstances in the market, I think the best strategy is to remain calm, and just carry on.
There’s no need for reactive selling, but there’s no need to tempt fate with risky bets.
For example, last week Nilus Mattive sent out a brand-new "cash on demand" recommendation last week to his Superstar Trader members, and it has been working out great so far.
Now, given the additional weakness today, Nilus is getting ready to send out another new idea as soon as tomorrow.
And if you’re confused by all the ups and downs — or if you simply want to turn them into immediate income — you’re just in time. If you sign up for a risk-free trial right now you can probably still get this trade the minute it goes out. But you would have to act immediately!
***
In the meantime, I want to return to the topic of discussion last Friday, and that was the new Quinnipiac University National poll of presidential candidates.
Recall that the poll asked respondents to name the "first word that comes to mind" when considering each of the three leading candidates.
The results told us a lot about the public’s opinion of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Jeb Bush.
According to the poll, the "first word" that came to mind for each was:
Hillary: "Liar"
Trump: "Arrogant"
Jeb: "Bush"
In the spirit of this poll, I offered up my "first word" assessment of each candidate as follows:
Hillary: "Sneaky"
Trump: "Ego"
Jeb: "Too Honest"
As for your feedback, most of you agreed with both the consensus poll and my thoughts, at least in spirit, regarding the candidates.
But leave it to our intelligent, witty and sometimes downright hilarious readers to come up with some fantastic "first word" thoughts and commentary regarding the top three candidates.
The responses were so good that I just have to share some of the brightest and funniest for all to see.
So, here we go …
Mark S. writes:
Hillary: "Criminal"
Trump: "Leader"
Bush: "Cautious" (beyond what might be considered a ‘GOOD’ thing)
Bruce writes:
Hillary: "Sleaze"
Trump: "Hitler"
Bush: "W"
Patriot55 writes:
Hillary: "Slimeball"
Trump: "Effective"
Bush: "Pushover"
Dan G. writes:
Hillary: "Unbelievable"
Trump: "Surprising"
Bush: "Recycled"
Reed writes:
Hillary: "Psychopath"
Trump: "Bulldog"
Bush: "Enough"
john s writes:
Hillary: "Condescending"
Trump: "Frank"
Bush: "Limp"
Linnie writes:
Hillary: "Really?"
Trump: "WTF?"
Bush: "Bush!"
Vi writes:
Hillary: "Treacherous"
Trump: "Strong"
Bush: "Weak"
Jeff writes:
Hillary: "Tammany"
Trump: "Reckless"
Bush: "Milquetoast"
Brad comment: I must admit that this last response from Jeff is one of my favorites, not because I agree or disagree with the viewpoint, but because of the colorful language and cultural references.
The "Tammany" reference for Hillary goes back to the 1780s, when the Democratic Party controlled the political machine in New York City and New York State. The iron-fisted Tammany group basically strong-armed their way into power, and into getting what they wanted via any means necessary.
The "Milquetoast" reference here for Jeb harkens back to the 1920s cartoon character "Caspar Milquetoast" from "The Timid Soul," a comic strip by H.T. Webster.
The character became a synonym for someone who is timid, unassertive and easily dominated or intimidated by others.
Fair or not, this criticism is associated with Jeb Bush, and I suspect it will be a hard one for him to shed — as will the predominant "first word" that comes to mind for him, his last name.
As of press time, we continued to receive a lot of feedback on the "first word" subject. I love reading these, so please don’t hesitate to let those descriptions out.
Let me know how you feel by leaving a comment on our website or by sending me an e-mail.
***
U.S. stocks finished well off their lows of the day, down just about three-quarters of a percent across the board, as persistent fears over the Fed’s decision on interest rates and a slowdown in China and the global economy prompted the selling.
August will go down in history as a turbulent month, but there were certainly some bright spots in today’s trading …
• West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures turned sharply higher Monday, spiking nearly 9% and ending the day just shy of $50 per barrel. The move pushed crude oil to a monthly gain of more than 4%, and to their highest level in nearly six weeks.
• Gold futures were lower Monday. However, gold prices still logged their largest monthly gain (3.4%) since January, when it rose 8%.
• Goldman Sachs cut its economic outlook for China over the next three years. Goldman cut its outlook for China GDP growth in 2016 to 6.4% from 6.7% and trimmed their forecast for 2017 to 6.1% from 6.5% and reduced their 2018 outlook to 5.8% from 6.2%.
• Apple (AAPL) will make it easier to block ads on iPhones and iPads in its next operating system, due out as early as next month. The OS will let users install apps that prevent ads from appearing in its Safari browser.
Good Luck and Happy Investing,
Brad Hoppmann
Publisher
Uncommon Wisdom Daily