DJIA

open 11,133.40

close 11,164.05 up 31.49

day high11,247.60

day low11,132.34

today's volume 168,112,548

3mo avg. daily volume 183,770,565

DJTA

open 4,756.98

close 4,774.86 up 19.89

day high 4,823.98

day low 4,756.98

today's volume 15,610,649

3mo avg. daily volume 15,975,203

 

Apologies to the faithful, it has been extraordinarily busy for the past two weeks and being that I'm more of someone who journal's progress than writes professionally, I have put the blog on the shelf from time to time.  The markets have been very interesting.  I find it amazing that this much manipulating can occur in a single market.  I talk to a lot of interesting people in a given day, most of them focused primarily on their finances, at least throughout the duration of our conversations.  There is confusion... and hope.  Some have lost it, but some cling.  I've always enjoyed the story of Pandora's Box, when all the horrors have been unleashed, at the bottom of the box is hope... I've always wondered if that is meant to show a rebirth of things, or if hope itself is the greatest and most potent horror that exists.

Geithner asked international central bankers to minimize their holdings in US Dollars.  Potentially flooding the market with "used" issues of US Dollars.  This would cause a drastic decline in the value of the currency, at least short term.   I can't put 2 and 2 together on this one.  I can think of a few reasons why, but none of which give me any insight into how they plan on "fixing" this problem.  I don't know if they do plan on fixing it.  In fact, I'm quite sure they have no intention of doing so.  Instead, stretch the problem out long enough until it becomes someone else's problem.

If you're a farmer, I hope you've had a great harvest.  Where commodity prices have risen too, my corn growers throughout the midwest are enjoying replenishing their coffers.  But food prices at the first tier of production are always lower than food prices at the last tier of consumption, and I wouldn't be surprised to see inflationary pressures make their way to market throughout the next 6 months.