BloggeRhythms

Yesterday’s major news reports reflected two significant aspects of the current political climate. Of 27 candidates back by Trump, 23 have prevailed at present. At the same time, according to CNBC, “The Dow Jones Industrial Average headed for its biggest loss since 2020 on Wednesday after another major retailer warned of rising cost pressures, confirming investors’ worst fears over rising inflation and rekindling the brutal 2022 sell-off.”

“The Dow shed 1,255 points, or 3.8%, or the average’s biggest decline since October 2020. The S&P 500 traded 4.3% lower, the biggest drop since June 2020. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 4.9%, the largest fall in the tech-heavy index since May 5. The selling was broad and intense on Wall Street with just 13 members of the S&P 500 in the green.

“Markets returned to heavy selling after two back-to-back quarterly reports from Target and Walmart stoked investor fears of rising inflation. It’s the fifth Dow decline of more than 800 points this year, which all occurred as the stock sell-off intensified within the last one month, according to FactSet data.”

As the article continues, the key point for consideration is that the financial damage is self-inflicted. Kim Forrest, founder of Bokeh Capital said, “It’s clear that transportation costs matter and they’re impacting [some of] the largest companies,” said “So I think investors are scratching our heads going, ‘so, who’s next?’ And they’re giving visibility into what’s happening with the consumer.”

At this point, it’s important to remember that when Biden took office, although suffering the effects of the Covid pandemic, the nation’s economy was about to rebound from the restrictions of a severely limited marketplace bound by quarantined consumers. And despite opportunities for the benefits of a return to normalcy and beyond, what did Biden do? Cancel the Keystone pipeline, curtail oil development in the Dakotas and begin a dedicated effort to reverse any aspect of economic success attributable to Trump.

So, as a result, where are we today? “Other retailers took a hit on the back of Target’s quarterly earnings miss — with the SPDR S&P Retail ETF falling more than 8%. Amazon’s stock price dropped 6.6%, and Best Buy’s stock price fell more than 11%. Dollar General’s fell more than 11%, and Dollar Tree’s declined more than 15%. Shares of Macy’s dropped 12%, while shares of Kohl’s fell more than 10%.

“Lowe’s fell more than 6% after missing sales expectations in its first quarter report as shoppers bought fewer supplies for outdoor projects.”

Jack Ablin, founding partner of Cresset Capital, summarized today’s situation by saying: “Any company that relies on households and discretionary purchases will likely suffer this quarter because a lot of discretionary income has been funneled to food and energy prices.”  

So, it seems that in the Republican party at least, there’s an awareness of who was responsible for the nation’s economic success, prior to Biden’s intentional reversal of the progress. And that among those Republicans, attribution is being given to Trump through support of those candidates for office he chooses to endorse.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios