For crying out loud! What the heck is happening with the markets and economy…especially today?

At the end of May I wrote an extensive SitRep on the economy and followed it up with several Q&A posts in the following weeks. Then you look at what I wrote about the economy in April, March, February, January…then throughout 2023, 2022…well, you get the point. Today should not be a surprise or a shock.

I’ve been watching the markets this morning and waiting to see where the landing would be before I posted by thoughts. Let’s crunch some numbers from around mid-July when it looked like everything was topping out and compare it to some of today’s worst numbers…

• S&P500 down 9%
• DJIA down 6.5%
• NASDAQ down 12.5%

So all those stock markets are trending down…and have been since mid-July.

Let’s look at indicators of manufacturing…

• Oil down 11%
• Copper down 14%
• Steel down 10.5%
• Aluminum down 9.5%

Now let’s look at precious metals, considered a “safe place” when things look bad…

• Gold down 2%
• Silver down 15% (silver is also used extensively in manufacturing)

And for those who love and/or advocate for Bitcoin as some kind of safe place, safe haven, a currency, or all-around good investment…

• Bitcoin down 23% since mid-July (far worse than anything else!).

And at the time I was researching the price…Bitcoin had swung 15% today…down. With 2 – 3 times its normal volume. Yeah, folks appear to be dumping it big time. Gee…

Is this the “big one”???? I have no idea…I am no expert at all in any of this stuff. But it sure does look as if the markets and economy is taking a huge stinking brown dump.

Two areas that I find of particular note…

1 – All the manufacturing indexes I looked at appear to have an extremely negative outlook for the foreseeable future.

2 – The safe havens are down as well. So if everything else is taking a dump…why the safe havens as well?

Also of particular interest…the VIX. The VIX measures how much volatility professional investors think the S&P 500 index will experience over the next 30 days. In other words…how worried professional investors are about the markets and economy.

Mid-July the VIX was at 13…apparently low volatility, good outlook, no worries, plenty of confidence. Earlier today it hit 65, then settled back at 35, averaged in the 50’s today. Putting that into perspective…

• At the time of the ‘07/’08 crash the VIX was about 60.
• At the very height of the COVID pandemic the VIX was 54.

What does this all mean? I have no earthly idea what it means for you. I know for me and my family what it means…and where I think this is all headed.

Here’s a question for you…If the economy is crashing, as some would say it is, what do you think TPTB will do to ensure their person is in the White House?

Wait, here’s another one for you…If you are a student of the “Great Reset” would there be a better timing for…

Then again…I am probably just some rambling fool…for the last 10 years.

As for me and my house…we have prayed, planned, and prepared. What about you guys?

Personal Note: For the last 10 days I’ve been working on a SitRep; first one in a fairly long time. Just about the time I think I have all the pertinent material identified…I find a couple more dots to connect. Yeah, I think I will just throw it all out and forget about writing one for now. You either get it by now or not. Maybe I will write one in the future. If you are not up to speed you could always go back and read the last 5 years worth 🙂

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Q & A Time…Ask me a question or send me a message…

 

 

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