Point Wipeout Just The Beginning Of A Historic Financial Nightmare? – Michael Snyder

 

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The Stock Market Is Crashing! Is This 1,000 Point Wipeout Just The Beginning Of A Historic Financial Nightmare? – Michael Snyder

 May 9, 2022  Steve Martin  0 Comments America, dollars, FED, fertilizer, financial nightmare, inflation, markets, Michael Snyder, stock market, stock market crashEdit

Posted: 05 May 2022 02:26 PM PDT

Is this “the Big One”?  On Wednesday, I warned that the Federal Reserve had made a “colossal mistake” when it increased its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points, and it looks like investors on Wall Street fully agree.  We just witnessed one of the largest single day stock market crashes in history, and of course this comes at a time when stock prices had already fallen quite dramatically.  Even before the carnage on Thursday, stocks were off to their worst start to a year in decades.  So will things settle down soon, or is this the beginning of a truly historic stock market collapse?

Millions of Americans better hope that it is the former, because trillions upon trillions of dollars in paper wealth is on the line.

I have always warned my readers that you only make money in the stock market if you get out in time.

It doesn’t matter if you were holding certain stocks when they soared to all-time record highs.  What is going to determine if you make a profit or not is when you choose to sell.

And markets tend to go down a whole lot faster than they go up.

On Thursday, the Dow was down more than 1,000 points, the S&P 500 plunged more than 3.5 percent, and the Nasdaq got absolutely crushed…

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,063 points, or 3.12%, to close at 32,997.97. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.99% to finish at 12,317.69, its lowest closing level since November 2020. Both of those losses were the worst single-day drops since 2020.

The S&P 500 fell 3.56% to 4,146.87, marking its second worst day of the year.

The reason why the Nasdaq plummeted so dramatically was because tech stocks were in “free fall mode” once again…

Large tech stocks were under pressure, with Facebook-parent Meta Platforms and Amazon falling 6.8% and 7.6%, respectively. Microsoft dropped 4.4%. Salesforce tumbled 7.1%. Apple sank 5.6%.

If you think that those numbers are bad, just look at what happened to Etsy and eBay…

Etsy and eBay dropped 16.8% and 11.7%, respectively, after issuing weaker-than-expected revenue guidance. Shopify fell nearly 15% after missing estimates on the top and bottom lines.

The declines dragged Nasdaq to its worst day in nearly two years.

We have seen other bad days on Wall Street in recent years, but this definitely feels different.

I think that Kim Forrest has done a better job than anyone else of summarizing what we just witnessed…

“I expected some selloff, but the great puking that’s happening, I didn’t expect,” said Kim Forrest, founder and chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners. “Is this capitulation? I remember what capitulation feels like — this kind of feels like capitulation, when everything, even the good names, are getting barfed out.”

I could not have said it better myself.

So precisely what was the trigger that prompted this rush for the exits?

Well, a lot of analysts are pointing to the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates on Wednesday.  Here is one example…

“It’s going to be incredibly difficult for the Fed to normalize interest rates without having a negative impact on growth and earnings,” said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management. “So stock prices are too high if we’re going to see a flattening or a decline in earnings per share.”

Because there is so much leverage in the market right now, rapid declines could precipitate wave after wave of forced selling.

In fact, it appears that this is already happening to a certain degree.

Ultimately, it certainly won’t take too much to turn this “market slide” into a “market avalanche”.

Meanwhile, we continue to get more indications that the U.S. economy as a whole is really slowing down.  On Thursday, we learned that worker productivity declined “at its fastest pace in nearly 75 years” during the first quarter…

Worker productivity fell to start 2022 at its fastest pace in nearly 75 years while labor costs soared as the U.S. struggled with surging Covid cases, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.

Nonfarm productivity, a measure of output against hours worked, declined 7.5% from January through March, the biggest fall since the third quarter of 1947.

At the same time, we continue to get more bad news on the inflation front.

One of the largest meatpackers in the western hemisphere is warning that steaks and burgers will get even more expensive in the months ahead…

Beef will be getting even more expensive at U.S. grocery stores in the months ahead, according to one of the country’s biggest meatpackers.

National Beef Co., controlled by the Brazilian giant Marfrig Global Foods, sees relatively stable margins in the next two quarters, according to Tim Klein, who heads Marfrig’s U.S. operations. That means even though their costs to buy cattle are increasing, the company will ultimately be able to pass that on to consumers in the form of pricier steaks and burgers.

And the rapidly rising cost of fertilizer will inevitably make trips to the grocery store much more painful later this year…

A fertilizer shortage is putting the food supply at risk.

Fertilizer prices have tripled from where they were in 2021 and it’s forcing Mid-Michigan farmers to change how they grow their crops.

“You’re cutting off one hand to save the other,” said Seth Cords.

So many things are simultaneously going wrong, and the outlook for the second half of this year is exceedingly bleak.

But for a long time stock prices were able to defy economic reality.

Even though economic conditions were rapidly deteriorating all around us, investors just continued to party on as stock prices just kept going higher and higher.

Of course now everything has changed.

Trillions of dollars in paper wealth has already been wiped out, and trillions more will likely be wiped out in the days ahead.

But Wall Street doesn’t even realize that what we have been through so far is just a warm up act.

Much more difficult days are coming, and eventually we will see financial disaster on a scale that is absolutely unprecedented in our history.

Hopefully that time can be put off for as long as possible.

But the clock is ticking, and what happened on Thursday should be a major league wake up call for all of us.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written five other books that are available on Amazon.com including  “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, “Get Prepared Now”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending digital copies as gifts through Amazon to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post The Stock Market Is Crashing! Is This 1,000 Point Wipeout Just The Beginning Of A Historic Financial Nightmare? appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Turbulence - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Turbulence

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a rainstorm against a wall.” (Isaiah 25:4, NASU)

Having now experienced the tail-end of two hurricanes hitting the Carolinas in the past few weeks, one realizes that turbulence, either in the natural or spiritual, can be most troubling to the soul. And for many, it touches the spirit and body in extreme measures. If the fierce wind doesn’t blow down the decades-old tree onto your house, there is a good chance that the high tide or rising, overflowing river will take down foundations built long ago.

When it comes to the forces of weather, mankind continues to remain at the Lord’s mercy.

On the same day that Hurricane Michael was striking the Florida panhandle with tremendous, destructive force, the USA stock market was being hit with a substantial downturn. Grant it, record marks had been reached over 15 times this year, but those counting on life-long investments and golden year eggs still face uncertainty in things they really can’t control.

Often there seem to be just too many things that are out of our hands. Think as we might in our own understanding, most often our simple lack of discernment and misdirection gets us nowhere or gets us going down the wrong road. (And it isn’t always the GPS’s fault.) And as for me, I am fine with that. Because even in the midst of my finite wisdom, my lack in controlling things, my minute understanding in making it all good – it always points me back to the fact that I am not a god. But I do know the One that is. So to Him, the Lord of all, I continually turn for godly guidance, godly wisdom, and blessed certainty in taking the right path.

 

While even in the midst of hurricanes, stock market failings, relationship troubles - all of which come with the need to hang on and get through it – trust in the Lord is a must in these end times. Nothing else can or will sustain us in the turbulent days ahead.

As I head for another journey to the Middle East, which has seen its years of turbulence, war, and strife among the nations, I look forward to being in the midst of the land of Israel, which has the assurance from Scripture of the hand of the Lord God Almighty upon them, covering over His people.

"The poor and needy seek water, but there is none,

Their tongues fail for thirst.

I, the Lord, will hear them;

I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

I will open rivers in desolate heights,

And fountains in the midst of the valleys;

I will make the wilderness a pool of water,

And the dry land springs of water.

I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree,

The myrtle and the oil tree;

I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine

And the box tree together,

That they may see and know,

And consider and understand together,

That the hand of the Lord has done this,

And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

(Isaiah 41:17-20, NKJV)

This is a promise to the Jewish people, and also to those of us who call upon the Name of the Lord Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah.

Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. Over the past 8 years the Lord has given me 354 messages to share. First in short message form and then compiled in books. Please be sure to sign up for our Now Think On This messages in newsletter format. Use the "Sign Up" button on our website, or go here: Sign Me Up!

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Now Think On This #355 - in the year of our Lord 10.11.18 – “Turbulence”, Thursday, 12:15 pm

2017 Has Been The Best Year For The Stock Market EVER - THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

2017 Has Been The Best Year For The Stock Market EVER

Posted: 18 Dec 2017 Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

We have never seen a better year for stocks in all of U.S. history.  Just five days after Donald Trump entered the White House, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit the 20,000 mark for the first time ever.  On Monday, the Dow closed at 24,792.20, and there doesn’t seem to be any end to the rally in sight.  Overall, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up more than 5,000 points so far in 2017, and that absolutely shatters all of the old records.  Previously, the most that the Dow had risen in a single year was 3,472 points in 2013.

Yes, I know that it may seem odd for a website that continually chronicles our ongoing “economic collapse” to be talking about a boom in stock market prices.  But of course there has not been a corresponding economic boom to match the rise in stock prices.  This artificial stock market bubble has been created by unprecedented central bank intervention, and every previous stock market bubble in our history has ended with a horrible crash.

But for the moment, it is certainly appropriate to be in awe of what has transpired in the financial markets in 2017.  Never before have we seen the Dow close at a record high 70 times in a single year, and we still have almost two weeks to go.

Stocks have risen every single month in 2017, and that is the very first time that has ever happened as well.  No matter how much bad news has come out, stock prices have just kept climbing and climbing and climbing.

Since Donald Trump’s surprise election victory last November, the Dow is up a whopping 34 percent.

34 percent!

Wall Street has never seen better times than this.  Overall, U.S. stockholders have seen more than 5 trillion dollars in paper gains since Trump was elected, and this has created a real estate boom in some of the wealthier areas of the nation.

Of course markets go down a lot faster than they go up, and that 5 trillion dollars in paper gains could be wiped out very rapidly in the event of a major disaster, but for the moment investors are absolutely thrilled with what has been happening.

Of course there are red flags all over the place, but not too many people are even paying attention at this point. Right now the S&P 500 is the most overbought that it has been since 1958, and earlier today a CNBC article declared that U.S. stocks are “very, very overbought”, but this will probably just encourage people to buy even more.

These days, if stocks are up that is a signal to buy, and if stocks are down that is a signal to buy.

Of course we witnessed similar euphoria just before the dotcom bubble burst and just before the financial crisis of 2008, but most Americans have extremely short memories.

For most of us, those crashes might as well be ancient history.

But just like in each of those cases, market euphoria tends to hit a peak before things completely fall apart.  Bill Stone, the chief investment strategist for PNC Asset Management Group, recently made this point very succinctly…

“It is going to get to a point where it can’t get any better anymore,” he said. “In the market it’s always brightest before it gets dark.”

Others are being even more blunt.  For example, trends forecaster Gerald Celente is convinced that “equity markets around the world are going to crash” in 2018…

“Yes.  Everyone knows that the markets are overvalued.  The Schiller PE ratios rival those of the pre-1929 stock market crash and the Dot-Com bubble…The Black Swan Event: When war breaks out in the Middle East, the equity markets around the world are going to crash.  The Black Swan that is going to create ‘Market Shock’ is going to be an outbreak of war in the Middle East.  And when that happens, you are going to see gold and silver skyrocket.  That’s our forecast for one of the top 10 trends of 2018.”

Personally, I never believed that the stock market bubble could ever be inflated to such absurd proportions, and so I am just in awe at what is taking place on Wall Street. Since the last financial crisis our national debt has doubled, corporate debt has doubled, U.S. consumers are now 13 trillion dollars in debt, our economic infrastructure continues to be gutted, more than 40 million Americans are living in poverty and our financial institutions are being more reckless than at any other point in our entire history.

But for the moment, it is working.  We have been on the greatest debt binge in world history since the end of the last recession, and most people seem to believe that the debt-fueled standard of living that we are currently enjoying is somehow going to be sustainable.
Nothing about our long-term economic outlook has fundamentally changed.  Just because the authorities were able to extend this bubble for a little while longer does not mean that we are going to get to escape the consequences of decades of incredibly foolish decisions.
We just keep on mortgaging the future, but the funny thing about the future is that eventually it shows up.

And when our day of reckoning finally does arrive, the pain that it is going to cause is going to be absolutely off the charts.

Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

The Stock Market Has Gone Up More Than 5 Trillion Dollars Since Donald Trump Was Elected - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

The Stock Market Has Gone Up More Than 5 Trillion Dollars Since Donald Trump Was Elected Posted: 08 Nov 2017  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG One year ago we witnessed the greatest miracle in political history, and since that time we have also witnessed one of the greatest miracles in financial history.  On November 8th, 2016 the Dow closed at 18,332.74. On Wednesday, it closed at 23,563.36.  U.S. stocks have increased in value by about 5.4 trillion dollars since Donald Trump was elected, and I don’t think that we have seen anything quite like this ever before.  So does Donald Trump deserve the credit for this unprecedented stock market run?  Many experts are at least giving him part of the credit… Greg Valliere, chief global strategist at Horizon Investments, says outgoing Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen deserves “much of the credit” because the Fed’s policy of low interest rates has helped maintain a good economy and “favors stocks over other investments.” But Trump, he adds, “gets some credit for establishing a pro-business climate in Washington.” Trump also gets kudos for rolling back business regulations and pushing for a big tax cut for U.S. corporations, which investors say will boost corporate profitability. Without a doubt, a Trump victory was a good thing for the financial markets, but politicians need to be careful not to take too much credit for soaring stock prices. Because if they take credit when stocks go up, then they also have to be willing to take the blame when they go down. The primary reason why stock prices have gone up so much over the past several years is due to unprecedented intervention by global central banks.  They have literally pumped trillions of dollars that they have created out of thin air into the financial markets, and of course that was going to drive up asset prices. But now global central banks are reversing course in unison, and we will see if financial markets around the world can maintain these dizzying levels without artificial support. Because the truth is that whenever price/earnings ratios have ever gotten this high throughout history, a horrifying stock market crash has always followed.  There is no way that stock prices can stay at these levels without central bank support, and the trillions of dollars in paper gains that we have seen up to now can potentially be wiped out very rapidly. Just look at a company like Snapchat.  This is a company that is supposedly worth 15.4 billion dollars at the moment, and yet it is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter.  The following numbers come from Wolf Richter… Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, reported late Tuesday that its revenues in the third quarter rose 62% from a year ago, to $208 million, while its net loss more than tripled to $443 million. How? It wasn’t easy, but here’s how they did it: Cost of revenues, $211 million, exceeds revenues, a troublesome indicator. Most of it is what Snap pays Alphabet for hosting its content in the Google Cloud. Research and development expenses, $239 million, also exceed revenues. Sales and marketing expenses, $102 million, to push those Snapchat Spectacles? More on those in a moment. General and administrative expenses: $118 million Total expenses of $670 million, against revenues of $208 million. That’s what I call a business model. I want to be very clear about what I am going to say next. Snapchat’s business model is terribly broken, and this is a company that is going to zero. Ultimately, those that hold Snapchat stock to the very end will lose everything.  Instead of 15 billion dollars, this is a company that won’t be worth 15 cents. Speaking of going to zero, Sears just announced that they are getting rid of up to 140 more stores.  We have already set an all-time record for retail store closings in 2018, and the “retail apocalypse” that we are witnessing is only going to continue to accelerate. But at least the stock market continues to set new record highs, right? Don’t be fooled by the headlines.  The artificial stock market bubble is living on borrowed time, and meanwhile the “real economy” continues to struggle. When the stock market finally crashes, it will not be Donald Trump’s fault. Let me say that again. When the stock market finally crashes, it will not be Donald Trump’s fault. The Federal Reserve and other global central banks created this artificial bubble, and they will be to blame for the carnage that is caused when it bursts. And as the next great financial crisis unfolds, my hope is that people will finally be sick enough of these “boom and bust cycles” that we will be able to get rid of the Federal Reserve for good. We need people to understand that the design of our financial system is fundamentally flawed, because if we never treat the root cause of our problems we will always be chasing symptoms. There is a better way, and my hope is that in the aftermath of the next crisis we can start to get there. Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

One Year Ago A Miracle Happened Posted: 08 Nov 2017 04:15 PM PST On November 8th, 2016 we witnessed the greatest miracle in the history of American politics.  Leading up to election day, virtually all of the experts were boldly assuring us that Hillary Clinton would be the next president of the United States.  Personally, I was quite alarmed about what a Hillary Clinton presidency would mean, because Clinton’s vindictiveness is legendary and my anti-Clinton articles had been seen by millions of people.  When Trump shocked the world by winning the election, it was like an entirely new day had just dawned in America.  If Donald Trump could become president of the United States, literally anything was possible. President Trump has been visiting Asia this week, but on Wednesday he took a few moments to thank those that voted for him last November… President Trump marked the anniversary of his 2016 presidential election win by remembering the “deplorables.” “Congratulations to all of the ‘DEPLORABLES’ and the millions of people who gave us a MASSIVE (304-227) Electoral College landslide victory!” he tweeted Wednesday, featuring a photo of him and some of his aides aboard Air Force Once. It has been 12 months, but it is still hard to grasp what happened on that historic night.  Nobody in the mainstream media seemed to believe that Trump had a chance, and his shock victory took almost the entire nation by surprise.  The following is an extended excerpt from an article that I published on the day after Trump’s victory entitled “Do You Believe In Miracles?”… —– After it was all over, I kind of stumbled around my home lost in my thoughts. I was happy, confused, hopeful, stunned and pensive all at the same time. Like so many others, what I thought I knew about politics turned out to be wrong. But in other ways, the election of Donald Trump has confirmed so much of what I know to be right about America. Ultimately, it was the American people that decided this election, because the elite were doing their best to absolutely bury him. Never before has the mainstream media been so openly biased against a major party presidential candidate. For months on end they dumped sewage on Trump, but it didn’t work. Never before has a major party presidential candidate faced a civil war in his own party on the eve of the election. A whole host of big names in the Republican Party publicly announced that they would not vote for Trump, but it didn’t work. Never before have we seen a bigger October surprise than the lewd tape from 11 year ago that came out and shocked the world. That would have instantly killed the campaign of any normal politician, but it didn’t kill Trump’s campaign. From the very beginning it seemed like Trump was at war with almost everyone, and somehow he came out on top in the end. He beat the Bushes and the Clintons. He beat the Republicans and the Democrats. He beat Hollywood and the mainstream media. He beat the pollsters and the pundits. He beat the never-Trumpers and the billionaire donors. He beat Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Jay Z, Beyonce, George Clooney, Matt Damon and Lebron James. He beat the forces of globalism, elitism and political correctness. He beat CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and Barack Obama. He beat them all. —– Millions of us that had worked so hard to get Trump elected were absolutely jubilant, but of course there were millions of others that were bitterly disappointed.  If you want to take a walk down memory lane, watch this YouTube video that shows a whole host of liberal talking heads melting down in the aftermath of Trump’s win.  They also knew that something had just fundamentally changed in America, and they were not happy about it at all. Sadly, many Republican politicians have still not embraced Trump, and that is a huge mistake. For example, many believe that Ed Gillespie’s huge loss in Virginia happened because he distanced himself from the president… “Republican Swamp Thing Gillespie Rejected,” Bannon’s Breitbart News declared in a headline. Gillespie “did not embrace me or what I stand for,” Trump tweeted from Asia. The rush to destroy Gillespie — who borrowed some tactics from Trump but kept his distance from the president — points to an escalating fight within the party over whether candidates are better off courting Trump and his loyal base or keeping them at arm’s length. As for me, I am proud to stand with President Trump, and pro-Trump voters all over the nation are getting involved in my campaign for Congress. Of course Democrats are hoping that the Trump era will be over as soon as possible and that things will then go back to normal. But that isn’t going to happen.  We are here to take our country back, and the Trump movement is only just getting started. Michael Snyder is a Republican candidate for Congress in Idaho’s First Congressional District, and you can learn how you can get involved in the campaign on his official website. His new book entitled “Living A Life That Really Matters” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.