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(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)
BY NATHAN BYRNE
ANCHOR JASMINE BAILEY
The Dow has a tough act to follow today — after closing at an all-time high Tuesday. The panel
on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” had some fun with all the media attention on the market.
“Oh we will. If we get one point, it’s another fresh all-time new high. That is,
there is a generation that hasn’t seen that.”
It’s a record. But what exactly does that mean? A writer for TIME says …
“The 30 stocks that currently constitute the Dow Jones Industrial Average make up a
pretty narrow slice of American economic output. Analysts say the S&P 500 … is more reflective
of the market as a whole.” [Source: TIME]
The S&P 500 didn’t look too bad, either. It hit a five-year high — just not an all-time
one. So, the market movement has the Street’s attention, but what will it do to your retirement
savings? HLN correspondent Jennifer Westhoven says the trend makes a case for the buy-and-hold
argument, but …
“ … at the same time, if you stayed in for five years, your money did nothing. So,
you can’t feel great, either. But at least it came back.”
NPR’s Jacob Goldstein isn’t ready to hold a ticker-tape parade just yet. He says — “after
adjusting for inflation, the Dow was higher in 2000 … ” and in 2007, the year of the
previous high. Goldstein says, “It would need to rise another 10 percent or so … ” to
truly be considered an all-time high.
What’s the likelihood of the market’s gain getting gobbled up as political capital?
White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday, quote, “I don’t comment on markets.”
But Fox News’ Stuart Varney does. And he says this isn’t Barack Obama’s rally,
but Ben Bernanke’s — because Bernanke is printing money.
“$85 billion a month to be precise. He’s printing it. Churning it out there. Some of
it finds its way to the stock market. … So, there’s this flow of money out of bonds
and CDs into stocks, new record high.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch reports stocks in Japan and Australia hit multiyear
highs when those markets opened this morning.