NYT: Late Stock Market Rally Makes 2004 a Winning Year

[DeepModem Mom]

Late Stock Market Rally Makes 2004 a Winning Year
By JONATHAN FUERBRINGER


As 2004 ended, investors had plenty of reasons to breathe sighs of relief.

The war in Iraq raged on, the Federal Reserve began raising short-term interest rates, oil prices topped $55 a barrel, the presidential election went down to the wire and the stock market spent most of the year in the doldrums, yet the three main market gauges finished up for the year yesterday and are at their highest levels in three and a half years.

Much of the gains for the year came in a powerful postelection rally, and many investors just "think that they dodged a bullet in 2004," said Bob Froehlich, chief investment strategist at Deutsche Asset Management....

***

Before the presidential election, the Dow and the Nasdaq were down for the year, while the S.& P. was up just 1.7 percent. The 7.2 percent surge in the Dow after Nov. 1 was the fifth-best postelection rally in a presidential year since 1900 and the best since 1952, according to Ned Davis Research. For the Nasdaq, the 9.9 percent postelection climb was the second best since the index began in 1971 and the strongest such rally since 1992.

The year-end rally has fueled optimism for more of the same in 2005 : stocks up in the high single digits and corporate earnings growing at about the same pace....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/01/business/01stox.html?pagewanted=print&position=

[Cha]

1. Tell that to the people who have lost their

jobs and can't find others. Tell that to the family and friends of those who lost their lives in the illegal war in Iraq.

[pretzel4gore]

2. hogwash....the plunge protection team used public moneys...

the financial goons lie as badly as the mediawhores.....they seems frantic to protect geeb (according to foxnews, the bush family's nikname for jr, a complementary to john ellis, or 'jeb')
http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/112304_economic_armageddon.shtml

[StClone]

4. Bush's one Economic Control

Sink the Dollar to make U.S. goods more attractive and yet we still have a huge trade deficit.

It's no longer about entrepreneurs (makes me ill to hear Bush mention them) it's about predation and moving money and the last great raid is SS. Home equity is well-tapped, credit cards abused and a housing market bubble ready to go down. Out-sourcing creates wealth for the top investors and contributes to many middle class woes.

Debt will soon kill the U.S. and the game will be over. A few years ago I wouldn't have believed this but the after seeing the Iraq invasion occur with maxim opposition, BushCo doesn't do what's right only what they want.

[pretzel4gore]

5. major investigation of this scam.....

i recall during leadup to the iraq war, the fukking stock market died or boomed according to the changing vibes....and when the murder started, the financial news pigs on tv were so happy, so relieved....the omnipotenti (only in terms of waste) have been greenspanning the economy for too long, and death is a result...

[KayLaw]

3. Not so much

Unless, of course, we can get our " profits " in euros.

[TahitiNut]

6. Adjusted for inflation and dollar devaluation, the Bushoilini Pillage ....

... continues, shored up solely by Greater Fools and Robot Funds. It's high time there was a 1% national sales tax levied on the sale or exchange of any such equities within the US.

"highest levels in three and a half years"??? Even using the most invalid of measures, the Pied Pipers of Predation cannot portray the Bushoilini Regime as serving the common weal in any respect whatsoever.