Financial Turmoil Abound

[The Heretic]

It seems today might be a good day to see how much the Dow impacts my IRAs vs the S&P or NASDAQ.

The Dow took off this morning - currently +1% increase for the day, while the S&P is flat and the NASDAQ is down 0.5%. I am pretty sure my IRAs are very light in tech stocks. In the past it seemed the S&P had more impact than the Dow, but today will be a good test.

I need a couple thousand from my IRAs to pay some bills, but I am holding off as long as possible (without having to pay interest) so that when I sell some shares from the IRAs (by asking for some $), it will be at a high point (buy low, sell high). And no, I won't pay much, if any, taxes - my taxable income and deductions are such that my taxes should be very low, if any, this year.

 

[Alexx1401]

I get all of that but given the amount of help wanted signs I have seen in recent years, I believe the unemployment rate for those who wanted to work has been low.

The UE numbers have been something played with for as long as they have been keeping them. It all depends on who is in office. So they really are worthless. There is still an amazing number of open jobs but, this is due to the boat loads of cash we have been printing to give away. Still a LOT of people got into some field of work that is NOT doing well now. There can be a ton of available jobs and still lay offs in some places and "tech" has always been volatile. So often some Co posts amazing value and has amazing numbers of employee's one day. Next day they are in the toilet and workers being sent off. The real bomb to go off is this printing money to give away. Amazing we have been able to get away with this for this long. We are of course paying for it with inflation now which is a number also lied about a LOT.

 

[The Heretic]

The UE numbers have been something played with for as long as they have been keeping them. It all depends on who is in office. So they really are worthless. There is still an amazing number of open jobs but, this is due to the boat loads of cash we have been printing to give away. Still a LOT of people got into some field of work that is NOT doing well now. There can be a ton of available jobs and still lay offs in some places and "tech" has always been volatile. So often some Co posts amazing value and has amazing numbers of employee's one day. Next day they are in the toilet and workers being sent off. The real bomb to go off is this printing money to give away. Amazing we have been able to get away with this for this long. We are of course paying for it with inflation now which is a number also lied about a LOT.

It is not uncommon for some entity or exec in an entity to layoff a bunch of workers (vs. management) in order to boost quarterly/annual bottom line number - usually to keep their phony baloney jobs and/or make their "numbers" and/or get a bonus and/or bump the value of stock so they can sell it.

Long term planning/management? What's that? There is little to no reward in that! Not when they are going to move to another org in the short term.

I've seen it time and time again when I was working.

 

[Bam]

People are full on stupid at this point. OH hey, the market had a good day! Everything is perfectly fine now! We are on the rebound.

While American's have emptied their savings, maxed out their credit cards, and defaults are rising.

The lay offs have just began and are ramping up.

 

[The Heretic]

It seems today might be a good day to see how much the Dow impacts my IRAs vs the S&P or NASDAQ.

The Dow took off this morning - currently +1% increase for the day, while the S&P is flat and the NASDAQ is down 0.5%. I am pretty sure my IRAs are very light in tech stocks. In the past it seemed the S&P had more impact than the Dow, but today will be a good test.

I need a couple thousand from my IRAs to pay some bills, but I am holding off as long as possible (without having to pay interest) so that when I sell some shares from the IRAs (by asking for some $), it will be at a high point (buy low, sell high). And no, I won't pay much, if any, taxes - my taxable income and deductions are such that my taxes should be very low, if any, this year.

Well, the S&P recovered somewhat - if I recall it went up by 0.3-0.4% yesterday while the Dow went up almost 1.5%. Looking at how my regular IRA went up, it seems it is more heavily weighted to funds/etc. in the S&P than the Dow as it only increased by about 0.2%

I would be content with a consistent 0.1% per week.

ETA: S&P went up by ~0.6% today, while the Dow only increased by 0.8% - my IRAs increased by 1.5%, so I am assuming, again, that my IRAs are more full of funds from the S&P. This is kind of informed guessing without drilling down into the funds and what the funds hold stock in - which is a non-trivial exercise I am too lazy to undertake.

 

[arakboss]

Spotify jumps after saying it will cut 17% of workforce — read the full memo from CEO Daniel Ek

Spotify shares climbed roughly 10% Monday after the music streaming service said it would cut 17% of its workforce, or about 1,500 jobs.

www.cnbc.com

 

[arakboss]

Bad news is

Xerox to cut 15% of its workforce

Xerox will cut 15% of workforce as part of a new restructuring plan.

www.cnbc.com

Good news is, there are still 8.7 million job openings in the US.

 

[arakboss]

I only have 25% of my IRA in cash, the other 75% is deployed into the market.

 

[The Heretic]

I did ok in December (and latter part of 2023 for that matter) - got back up to a previous high. Pulled a couple $K from my regular IRA to pay XMas bills/etc. - timed that right (or rather the timing was lucky) apparently as the first two days of 2024 the market slumped a bit.

I tend to not look at my daily balances when I don't have to and the market is down - just to keep my hopes up a bit. I know if I am patient my IRAs will do ok. I have noticed my Roth IRA tends to be more steady - it is invested differently, more bonds than my regular IRA - I haven't touched it except to rollover $ from the regular IRA to avoid taxes later.

 

[arakboss]

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup Risk Losing $24,400,000,000 As Number of Troubled Loans Erupt: Report - The Daily Hodl

Optimism in the US banking industry is being threatened by a growing pile of bad loans, putting pressure on the sector's biggest players.

dailyhodl.com

 

[arakboss]

What a pessimist.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warns US driving toward a cliff as debt snowballs

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned Friday that America is headed toward a cliff with its soaring debt, saying it must be addressed before it causes a crisis.

www.foxbusiness.com

 

[Alexx1401]

What a pessimist.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon warns US driving toward a cliff as debt snowballs

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned Friday that America is headed toward a cliff with its soaring debt, saying it must be addressed before it causes a crisis.

www.foxbusiness.com

No amount of warning every changes anything here. In mass people seem to have the memory of a goldfish.
There will be a "correction". Anyone with a brain knows there will be. What we of course do not know is when and how bad. Many who have the goldfish memory get real upset when you tell them this. Because even those who want to pretend its not going to happen do know in the back on their mind that this can NOT possibly just keep going like this. So whistle past the graveyard till something happens. Then the same people who made the mess will run to camera's to say vote for them and they will fix it.