Whipsaw Wednesday – America Heads in a New Direction

We’re going to go back to the future!  

After taking an evolutionary step backwards for four years, it’s time to get America back on track and moving forward again in the 21st Century and, hopefully, we still have time to make this decade the Roaring 20s and not the prelude to the second Great Depression.  As Warren Buffett says about investing in companies:.  

“I try to invest in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.”

Well, America has not passed the idiot test but it’s still too soon to get a grade as we have to see if Engineer Joe can get this train back on the tracks or if, at this point, he’ll merely be able to bring us in for a soft landing.  At 78 years old, even Joe Biden doesn’t think he should be President for more than 4 years and is calling himself a “Transition President”.  Reagan was 78 when he left office, Trump is 74 but, as Reagan said of Walter Mondale:

“I want you to know that I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” Reagan said. “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

Experience is certainly what Joe Biden is bringing to the table – he’s been a Senator since 1973, then VP for 8 years in 2009 and then 4 years of relaxation as a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania while remaining at the forefront of the “Cancer Moonshot” program he started and is likely to bring to the White House officially as one of his first acts.  If you want to know what Joe Biden is really about, watch his eulogy for John McCain.

Politics doesn’t have to be ugly and our nation doesn’t have to be bitterly divided.  We, the people, are being offered a chance to go forward with the grace and dignity we used to aspire to, not the ineptitude and bile we have settled for.  We’re better than that – all of us are better than that – and we should expect better than that from our leaders.  

So far, the markets are loving it, with the S&P 500 now topping 3,800 and still heading higher but it’s the small-cap Russell 2000 that has gone crazy since the election, climbing from 1,500 in October to 2,150 this morning – a gain of 43% in 3 months.  At this rate of return, who needs a trading plan?  

The Russell is up 120% from it’s March low of 1,000 – the Nasdaq hasn’t even doubled yet!  Of course this is insane but the madness doesn’t stop which is why we still have all those longs in our 6 Member Portfolios, even though we REALLY think things are grossly overvalued.  

The Long-Term Portfolio, in fact, gained 8.3% since Thursday, closing yesterday at $1,557,513 from $1,515,200 Thursday morning for a gain of $42,313 in 3 market sessions.  This is what Yellen promised us yesterday – MORE FREE MONEY – but we have to be there to take advantage of it, don’t we?  The Government is throwing Trillions and Trillions of Dollars into the economy and other Governments around the World are doing the same so of course our Corporations will benefit.  

At the moment, there’s no end in sight to the free money parade and, in many ways, the new boss is the same as the old boss and Yellen made it very clear yesterday that the Biden Administration has no intention of rocking the economic vote until we are able to tackle the virus crisis – and that’s probably a lot more than 100 days away.  

• U.S. Stock Futures Climb, Dollar Extends Decline: Markets Wrap.
• Yellen’s “Go Big” Narrative Sparks Big-Tech, Bond, Bullion, & Bitcoin Gains.
• Yellen Gets Wall Street Buzzing About 50-Year U.S. Treasuries.
• Yellen says U.S. can afford higher corporate tax rate if it coordinates with other countries.
• Yellen’s Dollar, Central Bank Juggle, Banana Republic: Eco Day.
• ECB Is Capping Bond Yields But Don’t Call It Yield Curve Control.
• A Surge in Bad Debt Is Set to Worsen India’s Shadow Bank Crisis
• Oil Rises With Stimulus Hopes Overshadowing Gloomy IEA Forecast.
• Pompeo Hits China With 11th Hour ‘Genocide’ Label For Its Treatment Of Uighur Minority.
• Blinken Backs Tough Approach to China, Says Will Work With GOP.
• College Board Eliminates SAT Subject Tests.
• ‘Unintended consequences’ from stimulus could crush stocks: Jim Paulsen. 
• General Motors “Blue Sky” Scenario Could Send Stock To $160: B of A.
• Two More Chinese Cities Go Under Lockdown, as Beijing Mandates Four-Week Quarantine for Travelers.

Provided courtesy of Phil’s Stock World.