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Don’t say we didn’t tell you this could happen. It may not have been a Freaky Friday on Wall Street, but it sure was fun. Both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DOWI:DJI) set new record highs and Sirius XM (NASDAQ:SIRI) led all stocks as the most active by a long-shot.
Let’s Get Sirius
As we reported yesterday, the re-balancing of the Russell Index Fund (AMEX:IWM) might cause some high volume of activity on stocks they would offload. One of the stocks the fund was selling was Sirius XM, which closed yesterday at $3.32. Russell put 5,475,480 shares on the table. 3,464,00 shares went at 9:30 am EDT at a price of $3.33, with another 3,504,400 going at the closing bell, albeit at $3.28, a loss of 1.20% on the day. A total of 93,959,582 Sirius shares changed hands during the day.
There Is Nothing Poor about Standard and Poor’s.
Back in October 2007 – you remember the good old days, don’t you? – the S&P was at 1,561.80 and stretching for the 1,600 mark, when the bubble burst. By March 2009 the index had fallen to 683.38, a decline of 56%.
The S&P has almost continuously gained ground since mid-November 2012, and it first passed the coveted 1,600 mark on 03 May 2013. It broke through the 1,700 mark on 02 August 2013, then went on through the 1,800 barrier on 22 November. Reaching the 1,900 plateau took a bit more effort, but the breakthrough came just a few days ago on Friday 23 May 2014, when it closed at 1,900.57.
Each day this week the S&P has reached a new record either during intraday or at closing. Today it closed at a record 1,923.57
The Dow is a Wow!
Some were skeptical that the Dow could gain the ground that it needed, although, as we reported yesterday, it closed only 17 points below its previous best. The DJIA finished the day at 16,717.17, just two points up from its recent record of 16,715.44 set on 13 May before tailing off dramatically to 16,374.31 exactly one week later.
What Now?
Analysts much more erudite (some, not so much) than I should begin to weigh in on that matter within hours. Their expertise and opinions will all be interesting, and there are certainly any number of other factors to consider when foretelling the future of the stock market in what is still, ironically, a fragile world economy.
The economic integration of global economies has made the future even more unpredictable than ever. One or two seemingly unrelated disasters or conflicts could bring the markets crashing down. Personally, I believe that the global economies are much more fragile than they were in 2008-2009.
Confidence is running high right now, despite the realities of the global realities that can so quickly affect the markets. Believing that, I must also believe that even the best analysis cannot possibly be entirely accurate. As always, the ultimate buy and sell decisions are your own to make. In the meantime, let’s enjoy the moment while we can.
