The DOW Rebounds – A Great way to End the Week

March 14, 2025

Again, what happened today was totally predictable. Donald Trump did not issue any new tariffs and the markets rebounded and in big fashion.

When Trump keeps his mouth shut, the country benefits. That does not mean that the markets are out of the woods yet, even though all three major markets, the DOW, S&P500 and tech heavy NasDAQ have all rebounded. At a final minute tally, the Dow finished the day up by 1.65% for the day closing at 41,488.19. What a sharp difference from yesterday’s trading as it ended yesterday at 40,813.57.

So yes, the market rebounded at least for one day, while adding 674.62 points. It saved the week from total annialation. For what’s been happening lately, that’s quite impressive. The usual winners were NVIDIA Corp and American Express stocks. These are known as staple stocks, in which other major companies try to rally with and emulate their businesses and practices around these companies that always seem to be on top.

What does NVIDIA offer to the markets that’s so appealing?

One product would be the implementation of AI. This form of technology that seems to take over the mindset of intellectual thinking adds computer logic to the human formula to come up with a product that is far superior than if the result was created by just the human mind.

NVidia has been into the computer scene for quite a while now and they seem to have all the answers to keep things rolling smoothly and going in a positive direction. When you check the markets recently, Donald Trump’s political maneuvering continued to shake global markets and rattle US consumers. But even during Trump’s tariff statements that seem to crash the markets each day, NVidia seems to alway be able to pull through, or at least I should say that they pull through more times than they fail too.  Every company has their bad days, but if I had money to wager on a stock just a few months ago, I would have put my bet with NVidia. Today, their performance was stellar, as shares are jumping, now up 3.5% as they are building servers with AI capability.

American Express has been one of the companies that are always on top and always a good bet to perform well in the markets.

Since I mention Donald Trump quite a bit in this website, I wanted to say something that is happening that is POSITIVE and most likely BECAUSE of Donald Trump.

Graph showing 30-year and 15-year mortgage rates going down from Jan 5 to March 2 2025.

 

Investors are exhausted after recent financial market chaos, but there’s one perk for weary homebuyers and that is lower mortgage rates. The 30- and 15-year mortgage rates have both steadily dipped for six weeks straight alongside bond yields. Actually that is teriffic news. Way to go Donald… But I would suffice to say he does not even realize that he actually is the reason for something good that’s happening. I think even ‘The Donald’ would be suprised.

DOW FUTURES – MARCH 14, 2025

As of this writing at 12:46 CDT here at the moment, the Dow futures look POSITIVE. It shows now being up by 208 points, which is .5% of the total holdings of the stock.

Unless something really happens on a positive note during trading when the markets open, the DOW will drop again by another 500-700 points.

In order to stop this, something really good has to happen that would really make news. But the facts are that the only thing we are talking about here most of the time recently is TRUMP TARIFFS. That talk will not help the stock markets but that’s pretty much all that’s making Trump news at the moment.

We benifit from a global trade market, and Donald Trump doesn’t want to trade in a reasonable fashion globally. He would rather make all of his competitors throughout the world move their businesses to America, and then as he says, there would be no tariffs for whoever moves here.

He’s also mentioned the fact that Canada should be our 51st state, and that they wouldn’t have to pay any tariffs if they were annexed to the United States. The same with Greenland. Trump wants to take over Greenland, which will never happen, in order to excavate the minerals he has lost because his poor tarrifs to Canada and now the lack of cooperation between the two countries. If he truly was their friend, he would be able to obtain the minerals he would like to have without Canada being annexed to the United States. Again, it’s another imposiblity, and another pipe-dream of Donald Trump.

In short, when Trump mentions tariffs, the market tanks. When he keeps his mouth shut for at least 24 hours without any threats, the markets will rise. Let’s see where it goes today.

Donald Trump 2024 Campaign Tax Plan

March 14, 2025

Actually, Donald Trump has a 2024 Campaign Tax plan, but the benefits from it along with the fallout does not make any sense. He floated around several tax policy ideas, but he wanted to extend the expiring 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changes. The tax cuts he gave the rich in 2017 ballooned the Federal Deficit by billions. Now he wants to do it again. But how he plans to do it will be nearly impossible and to say he will balance the budget in his second term, he surely must have another plan to accomplish his goals. At least I hope so, because he’s not going to get anywhere on this in short order and especially not with just tariffs and his campaign tax plan.

But the impact of his proposals will be very different if implemented, depending on which policies he puts forward and how he structures them.

I believe that some of his proposals are designed in a way that would promote long-run economic growth. But what is it going to be for Americans in the short term. PURE HELL! There is no other way to say it. People have to survive the short term in order to benefit from future economic growth. By then, we will all be living under a bridge somewhere.

He’s mentioned there should be permanent expensing for equipment, machinery and research and development (R&D). That’s reasonable, but does he have the smarts to get that done in his second term? I can’t see him accomplishing anything that would help the middle class.

Case in point, some of his tax proposals would worsen the structure of the tax code and are poorly designed. They wouldn’t contribute as much to long-run economic growth.

Unfortunately, I’m talking about Social Security income and ‘no tax on tips’. For me, it would be wonderful not to have to pay income tax on my social security, just because my wife’s income combined with my social security is above $32,000. I pay approximately $3,500 a year in taxes on my social security. So I have to save at least 10% of my social security check to pay taxes on that money that I already earned while working and paying taxes on the money I took home. In the past, I didn’t pull money out of my monthly social security check, but now I am doing just that. I filed ‘A Voluntary Withholding Request’  tax form, known as FORM W-4V. Saving that money each year to make sure I pay enough taxes by the end of the year is a good thing, but that’s money that I could have deposited in a savings account with interest,  But then what about exemptions for tips? Sure, that would make restaurant servers happy to be able to keep all their hard earned time money, but presently since it is income that they make while working for the company that employs them, they must pay taxes. Even if they didn’t have to pay a tax on their hard earned tips, there would be very little or no long-run economic growth. That’s kind of right to say that the employee getting the tips wouldn’t even get them if the employer didn’t hire them. So maybe the employer should get part of the tip.

Worse than any of this just mentioned, Trump’s reliance on import tariffs to offset the cost of tax cuts for the rich is a particularly distortive way to raise revenue, especially when all this seems to do is raise the ire of the tariffed countries he is attacking. Does Trump tell the American people that he’s putting us through hell with his tariffs to help his rich friends get another tax cut? Of course not!

But let’s get to the nuts and bolts of the issue here. I believe that his tariffs and his retaliation from his trading partners would totally null the long-run economic benefit that he’s proposed in his tax cuts. All for what? All for the ‘PAIN’ that people have to bear because Trump wants to play God-Almighty with the world. He wants all countries to bow to him, and he’s finding out in a short period of time that they will not bow to him and have other means to trade with partners that can be fair and not charge retaliatory tariffs just because they think they are being over-taxed. When it comes to trade between countries, keeping business private and discuss trading issues between specific countries is done best by the countries in a personal setting, not open for the whole world to see. If Trump is ignorant enough to embarrass a country in front of the world regard trade practices and institutes tariffs to solve the problem, the country being attacked has that same right. Countries like Canada, Mexico and China are not afraid of Trump and they can cause Trump just as much pain if not more that Trump can. Unfortunately, we are going to have to feel that pain. Trump claims that will be for a short period of time. I believe that it will be long term.

What he is actually doing or is trying to do with his tariffs is to offset the economic benefits of the policy changes he’s pushing forward to begin with, and his tax policies will not move in a positive direction for pro-growth, and fiscally responsible tax reform.

Again, Trump has a campaign tax plan, but never fully thought out what results he could actually gain from going forward with such a tax plan.

So in the following outline is the modeling for proposed major provisions by Donald Trump.

  • Making the individual TCJA expirations permanent except for the cap on SALT (effective January 1, 2026)
    • Rates and brackets
    • Standard deduction
    • Personal exemption
    • Child tax credit
       and other dependent tax credit
    • Limitations on itemized deductions (excluding SALT) and elimination of Pease limitation
    • AMT changes
    • Section 199A pass-through deduction and noncorporate loss limitation
  • Making the TCJA estate tax
     changes permanent (effective January 1, 2026)
  • Restoring the TCJA business tax provisions (effective January 1, 2026)
  • Reinstituting the domestic production activities deduction (DPAD) at 28.5 percent to lower the effective corporate tax rate for domestic production to 15 percent
  • Exempting tips from income taxes
  • Exempting Social Security benefits from income taxes
  • Exempting overtime pay from income taxes
  • Creating an itemized deduction
     for auto loan interest
  • Eliminating the green energy subsidies in the Inflation
     Reduction Act (IRA)
  • Raising current Section 301 tariffs on China to 60 percent
  • Imposing a universal tariff on all US imports of 20 percent
  • Foreign retaliation of 10 percent on all US exports plus additional in-kind tariffs on US exports to China

So what can be the economic effects of Trump’s Tax proposals?

First and foremost it has been determined that the proposals would increase the 10-year budget deficit by some $3 trillion in a conventional manner, and $2.5 trillion dynamically. The debt to GDP radio would increase by some 20 percent to 223% conventionally and 217% dynamically. There would have to be higher interest payment on the debt that would reduce American incomes by at least .8% and on the long run of -0.1%. This would negatively attack our economy.

Trump proposes to eliminate the green energy tax credits put in place by the IRA. Since they are temporary expansions there should be no long-run economic impact from eliminating them. But anything with the words ‘green energy’ in it is just dynomite for Trump. He’s going to try and get rid of it, regardless if it helps the American people or not.

Now after all this explanation of what could have been, will it ever become policy? I highly doubt it, because Trump is so hell bent with tariffs right at the moment, he has already spend almost half of his first 100 days with no real accomplishment benefiting the American people. I can’t wait to count the lies that will leak from his 100 day accomplishment speech we will have to bear witness to. Now that will be very painful.

Trump Threats Continue to TANK MARKETS

March 13, 2025

So what did Donald Trump’s threats cause today. Focusing on the markets, it was 100% predictable. The DOW ended the day down by 537 points, or 1.3%. The S&P 500 fell 1.39% and the Nasdaq Composite went down by 1.3%.

But Trump says that it doesn’t phase him. He indicated today that he is not going to bend on the 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, vowing that any resulting economic disruption “won’t be very long.” His Treasury Secretary claims that Trump’s tariffs will bring back the economy. How, by some miracle?

The bottom line evident to everyone is that if Donald Trump does not start caring about the markets and peoples life savings, then the markets will continue to decline and the people will have very lasting pain. Trump says he doesn’t watch the markets, but of course that’s just another lie. In a very short period time, the markets have dropped over 4,000 points from their record highs. There are already talks about a recession. If we hit that point, not much can stop us to head towards a depression.

To me what is uncomprehensible is the fact that this country is declining from being on-top of the world economically to one of the least admired countries in the world. Many of our allies across the globe looked at America as the ‘beacon of light’ for democracy and freedom prior to Donald Trump, but now they are distancing themselves from America and the traitorous policies of Trump. Countries like Canada and Mexico feel betrayed and feel hurt.

I will concede that the Canadians and Mexicans haven’t been totally honest and reasonable regarding their taxes on products that Americans buy, but at least there was some kind of order in the past between the United States and our neighboring countries to keep the idea of free trade more than just a thought. The world seemed normal and people were accepting the world as status quo.

With Trump’s tariffs and the reciprocal tariffs, free trade is now about something that’s happened in the past. Yet, Donald Trump is trying to force the rest of the world to accept his trade practices, or else there will be a penalty to pay in the form of a tariff, when ultimately the American people will have to pay. Trump is realizing that the world doesn’t have to listen to him and they are not. Instead, they are picking other partners to trade with, leaving Trump and his America behind. Canada is now trading with the European Union, China and Japan, and for the most part is not charging a tariff on anything because these countries are not tariffing them. But Canada is now tariffing America, all because of Donald Trump.

The biggest trade problem in the world can be said in two words…

DONALD TRUMP

Economic Uncertainty Surrounding Trumps Actions with Tariffs

March 13, 2025

It’s mid-day, and the DOW Jones Industrial Average is sinking as was expected. Compounding the normal profits and losses throughout the day, Donald Trump has been the catalyist that has been swinging the markets in their downword tumble since his election. The DOW is down by some 530 points at this writing or 1.3% for the day, so far. It’s been as low as 40,661.77 and a high of 41,360.12. It opened at 41,280.05. Stocks specifically hit were shares of Salesforce and Home Depot.

Those numbers are drastic, but Trump has been compounding the matter with his tariffs. Last night, the aluminum and steel tariffs went in effect on all imports worldwide.

Market volitility has been rampent throughout the last couple of weeks. There is no sign that things will get better, as the DOW heads for the worst week since March, while the S&P500 and Nasdaq are on track for the worst since September.

It’s all about numbers when it comes to traders. But it’s all about money when it comes to every day people.   People’s retirement (401k) and life savings are being hit, meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tells investors to focus on the long term. Really?!\?$/!//?

The big question is, can people survive through all this? Prices are going up. If you have a 401K right now, you will recognize that it’s in a tail spin, indicating that your savings right now is being directly attacked by what’s happening on the markets. That’s why I’ve been extremely focused on the markets like a laser beam in my most recent posts.

Here is what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview on CNBC.

“What we’re trying to do is create economic certainty. We’re going to do it with the tax plan. We’re going to do it with deregulation.”

Economic certainty for who, and the big question is when?  Is this what Trump ran on? He won the presidency because people believed that he could turn our economy around. Around from what? Our economy at that point when Trump became president was the strongest in the world. I wouldn’t give President Biden all the credit for the recovery from Covid that let to a big upswing in our economy, but what Donald Trump is doing as president right now, when it counts to all Americans now more than ever is the exact opposite of what Trump said he was going to do when he became president. If this is the way to create economic certainty then it’s not an economy I want to be part of. What tax plan? What deregulation? So far, this administration was been giving us nothing concrete on what’s actually happening to make things better for the American people. Frankly, I’ve lost my patience with Trump, and so has so many Americans, many who have voted for him.

I’ve had a lot of criticizm from some of my Republican friends saying that I shouldn’t talk so negatively when I mention Donald Trump in my articles. And if you claim you are not a Republican but still refuse to speak out against his policies, then you must be a SYMPATHISER of Trump.  First, I must remind them that the URL of this website is ‘trumpdecisionpoints.com‘ and that is exactly what I’m reporting here. It’s all about the decisions of Donald J. Trump. If Trump would create something positive that people can see, then I would write about that. So far in his 2 months of being the president, he has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help the average person in this country. Right now, he’s responsible for crashing the markets. So that’s what I’m reporting here. He has given me ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to write about in his favor. In retrospect, he has hurt many of the voters that voted for him.  Matter in fact, he is on track of being singlely and directly responsible for fireing so many people in government and causing massive unemployment in a rate only 2nd to COVID.  So if people don’t like what I write here, then you don’t have to read it and stay away. But if you want to be informed with accurate information that Trump will not tell his followers, then come back and read my articles. It’s OK to form your opinion on if you agree or disagree with my thinking, but at least you can better decide for yourself what you believe is true. Take in all the facts, then decide.

After Trump stirs the markets for a day or so, then he will pause the tariffs and his rich buddies that make bets on the stock markets will make a ton of money trading. Why? Because everyone knows, including his most beloved followers know, that Trump is a COWARD, and that he CAVES, or changes course on everything that he does and some of them know Trump so well, they even know WHEN he’s going to cave. Someone needs to point this out to his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent because obviously the Energy Secretary does not know. Will the Treasury Secretary continue to say that this is the way to create economy certainty? Canada, Mexico, and now Europe certainly will disagree along with the rest of the world and so do I, but Scott Bessent actually thinks he knows best. He’s been on the job in just a little over a month, and the world is supposed to take his word for it.

THE U.S. Economy Taking a Big Hit with Trump Tariffs

March 12, 2025

Today, the DOW fell again, but not before it started off in the green, slumped to almost 41,000 points, and then varied throughout the day, with a final figure below the start of the day. But, the loss today was negligible. Just .20% and just 82.55 points below the starting mark for the day of 41,350.93. The previous close was 41,433.48 on March 11.

So at least as the markets are concerned, the investors can breathe as sigh of relief, but there are still 2 days to go before the end of market close on Friday. The markets did fair today because the futures were good throughout the night, so the starting point today was higher at market open – 41,721.36. Because of the futures trading, the market began 370.43 points higher when it opened today but still couldn’t stay above water at the closing bell.

The problem is that Donald Trump created a catastrophe in the markets that will be hard to turn back or to even stop at this point. The DOW dropped over 1,500 points in just one 7 day period and even with the good start because of the futures markets, the DOW today dropped another .20% and still going in the wrong direction.  The U.S. economy will continue to reflect the pain people will experience because of Trump’s tariffs.

Trump claims that he doesn’t look at the markets. But you know that’s a lie. He watches the markets closely, but truly doesn’t understand the implications when the stocks go down and how much it affects the middle class and the poor. Within the last 30 days, the DOW has dropped almost 4,700 points. It’s known as the ‘Trump stock effect’.

Until Trump stops implementing new tariffs each week, and stops posting on X and TruthSocial the plans of his upcoming tariffs, the American people and businesses stand to loose lots of money and the economy will continue to sink.

But now the latest developments. This evening on March 12, 2025, Trump has initiated a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum coming into this country, from anywhere in the world. Now steel and aluminum prices will go up. Automobile prices will be hit and should be noticeable almost immediately. People will step back and not purchase automobiles,  because now they will feel they need to wait until prices go back down. So Trump is not done. His tool of destruction is the tariff, and with the modest drop today in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the week will continue to be volatile. Canada and Mexico immediately retaliated this evening with reciprocal tariffs on steel and aluminum. Unfortunately the markets should continue to tank tomorrow with this news.

So the modest losses of today with the DOW will now be stepped up and the day tomorrow will be a pretty terrible day on the markets. The markets will continue to fall, and now the destruction of our economy is getting into a territory that Trump may not be able to recover from. Again, Trump is not in step with the American people and doesn’t have much regard for their well-being, as they are feeling the ‘pain’ Trump claimed would come.

Starting around February 12th, the markets started to really start tumbling in a negative direction. On the very same day, the Russian markets started to peak. Trump made announcements about his upcoming tariffs and his stance about Ukraine, which sent stocks in Russia soaring. The Russian markets haven’t been this good since the beginning of the war 3 years ago. When Trump opens his mouth and supports Putin, their markets rally.

Trump appears to be doing more for Russia’s economy than he is for the U.S. economy. Trump opens his mouth, initiates tariffs that affect Americans, and our economy suffers while the stock markets sink. There are 30 major companies represented on the DOW JONES stock exchange, and only 11 of the 30 made positive gains in the market today. So 19 companies had losses in their market shares. Trump’s ignorance is on show for the whole world to see. He is treating the U.S. economy like one of his businesses. And on this course it will also go bankrupt as did many of Trump’s businesses over the years.

I’ll report on the futures market soon, and what to expect tomorrow.

The DOW Continues On Its Rocky Ride

March 11, 2025

Early Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1%, or more than 400 points, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite moved 0.4% lower in morning trades. At the end of the trading day, the markets ending another negative day with a loss of more than 478 points.

Just after the market open Tuesday, President Trump ordered an additional 25%-50% tariff on all steel and aluminum coming into the U.S. from Canada. The tariffs will go into effect tomorrow morning – March 12, 2025, according to President Trump’s post on Truth Social. That only means one thing. Reciprocal tariffs will be issued against the United States from Canada. There is no true winner here. Especially not investors or every day folks that go to work each day, work hard for their earnings and then come home and read the headlines, with Donald Trump in the news leading the way for markets to decline.

So who’s going to be a winner here? Truthfully not every day people, and unless you have the funds and the stomach to wade through the crazy markets, you will loose money. Is this the pain that Donald Trump wants us to feel? Is this what is right for America, especially right before a possible government shutdown on Friday. Hopefully the government shutdown can be averted.

There has been some hopeful days this month, but there is what is called the ‘fears index’, which just implies the volatility based on the options market and it has been getting higher each day, some of the highest levels experienced in months. This can be a signal as this gets excessive that the bottom is close by, but the warning is that the index can get a lot higher before it starts to come down.

At market close on Tuesday, there was still a sell-off as the DOW dropped another 478 points, a 1.14% drop, now at 41,433.48.

The S&P dropped .76% while the Nasdaq dropped .18%. It’s a little slower than for the previous days, but there still is a continuous drop that will effect or economy, kill jobs, a create higher costs. Trump believes that this will be temporary, but all indications from the people in-the-know say that this type of pain can last a long time. In just 50 days, Trump has hurt the economy as to just about push it off of a cliff and now in a free-fall. Trump believes that he has complete control of it. At the click of his fingers, he believes that the economy will be fixed, and that tariff prices will be stopped. There is nothing to explain it better than being in free-fall. For the last two weeks, especially since Trump originally initiated the 20% tariffs against Canada and Mexico, the markets have been so volatile that it’s getting hard to determine now how far it may go. The Dow slid nearly 500 points Tuesday after Trump announced and then walked back new tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, amid ongoing economic uncertainty — after closing 890 points down Monday. Canada has vowed to retaliate with tariffs of their own, and went as far as they may decide to cut electrical power off from 3 northern states if Trump continues his tariffs against Canada that receive hydro-electric power generated in Canada. As expected, Trump pulled back, now blaming his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick for all the chaos that he’s causing with announced tariffs.

In a response to reciprocal tariffs from Canada, Trump says he will more than double the tariffs from 20% to 45%. The citizens of the United States are in for a shock. If this all plays out for the worst, Tuesday will be a preview doomsday event.

I will be following the stocks pretty intently tomorrow, and report it as things happen, so there should be several updates throughout the day tomorrow.

Trump Continues to Destroy America

March 11, 2025

Never in a million years would I think that the United States would subject its people to a catastrophic event that is preventable. What president in his right mind would do such a thing?

The answer is no president, except Donald Trump.

He’s wanted to happen exactly what is happening. Chaos. He wants to declare emergencies just so that he can legally do what he wants to do, and that is to declare an emergency so that he can expand his tariffs legally, without the blessing of the United States Congress.

Keep in mind that what he is doing has been totally illegal up to this point, because the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES DOES NOT LEGALLY HAVE THE POWER TO INSTITUTE TARIFFS ON HIS OWN UNLESS THERE IS AN EMERGENCY. ONLY CONGRESS CAN GRANT THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES THOSE POWERS. So Trump is creating his own emergency, affecting all Americans, so now he will continue to threaten Canada.

This morning at 9:15AM ET, Trump published the following Tweet on Truth Social…

Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on “Electricity” coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S. to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA! Also, Canada pays very little for National Security, relying on the United States for military protection. We are subsidizing Canada to the tune of more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. WHY???? This cannot continue. The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians’ taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever – And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World – And your brilliant anthem “O Canada, “ will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL StATE within the greatest Nation that the World has ever seen!

I can continue to criticize Donald Trump. I can continue to report what the world is experiencing with this lunatic. And I will. But everyone within this country of the United States of America now can clearly see what Trump’s goals are here. Everything Trump is doing has to do with a takeover of Canada, making it our 51st state. This is totally outrageous. Canada will not relinquish its freedom without a war. Trump has in effect announced a war on Canada. It is more than a trade war. It is quickly escalating into something that by ANY other president, would have never happened. Has he been coordinating this planned takeover with Russia? I can argue that he is. Putin is watching. He is watching our economy fall over a cliff, which is the biggest WIN Putin has ever had fall into his lap, thanks to our president and convicted felon, Donald J. Trump.

The markets are CRASHING, just as expected, down by another 500 points. The NASDAQ and S&P500 are crashing. A recession is on the way.  Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of the story. But there is no sense now even trying to report what is happening in real time. The causes of our PAIN that we must bear is known. What is still not known is the ACTUAL effect of the pain caused by one callous man, bent on destroying America. I will continue to report stock market updates, but it’s not going to be pretty.

Stock Markets Tumble Big Time – Recession is Knocking

March 11, 2025

What happened today was predictive and preventable. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.08% in value which doesn’t seem to be a large number, but anyone following the markets today can tell you that the fall was astronomical. That’s one word to best describe it. The market lost 890.01 points, and now rests as 41,911.71, down from 42,801.72. All of this was cause from the Trump chaos that he wants us to witness.

Usually some time during the day, in a normal trading day one would see the Dow Futures recover and at least break even, then fall, or move up and down in a normal trading day. Today was different. It was far from being a normal trading day. It was one of the worst trading days since 2009. The DOW ended on Friday at 42,801.72 compared to todays close of 41,911.71, thus a loss in market shares of -2.08% or -890.01.

Loosing almost 900 points in the DOW in one day is a disaster, on top of previous disasters from all the declines of last week. And what’s coming is predictable, more of the same. Professional investors that know how to play the markets when the value is high or when it is low benefit even from a bad day such as today. But country as a whole suffers on days like this. Let me explain…

Most of us just watch what’s happening and realize that a drop in the markets is not a good thing, but we think for the most part that it won’t affect us, thinking that the only ones who feel Trump’s pain is the people who actually trade in the stock market and that the markets will recover. But I’m not so sure that this market can now recover.

On a normal day, that would be true for the most part, as investers and people with lots of money to invest in the market make some real money or loose some real money each day. But experienced investers know how to read the markets, as they know how to buy, when to buy, how to sell and when to sell.

But days like today are not normal days, as the market is so volitile that even investers may be having problems trying to determine when to buy or sell a stock. Normal people like you and me notice what’s happening as we check our 501K values and other investments that we have as we are concerned about what’s happening, but we don’t have any daily personal experience that we can control during times like this. Investors do but we do not for the most part.

How many people are ready to buy and sell some of their stocks, risk less or more and follow the markets intently as trading investors do? Hardly none of us. We work for a living and that’s where we put in our time each day, and when we get home for the day, we listen to the news, watch Youtube and catch up what happened during the day and maybe watch the stock tickers throughout the day, but don’t have any real interaction with stocks each day. By then, it’s too late. The markets are closed, and we are left to see the results of trading for the day, hoping that the stocks that the stocks that ride with our personal 501K are doing well. Today was one of those days that you do not need a rocket scientist to know that EVERYONE of US lost bigly today.

You may think that there will be good days and there will be bad days, and that’s true. But what happened today, why it happened today, and the fallout of what happened is nothing less than as if today you watched one of the scariest movies that you’ve ever watched in your life time.

If you happened to be living on October 29, 1929 which the majority of us were not (96 years ago), you can remember the start of the great depression. So almost ALL of us don’t remember that day because most of us weren’t even born back then. But that’s when it started. The height of the great depression is told to be in March of 1933, when the commercial banking system collapsed and President Roosevelt declared a national banking holiday. Sweeping reforms of the financial system accompanied the economic recovery, which was interrupted by what is known as a double-dip recession which hit in 1937. It all started with the stock market crashing in 1929, with bank failures and GOVERNMENT POLICIES. The government policies we are dealing with at the moment are TARIFFS, a direct result of Donald Trump, DELIBERATELY tanking our economy. So yes, as it did then, now Donald Trump’s tariff policys is leading us right back into depression territory.

Somehow we have to right the ship, but right now the ship is sinking and our government is not doing a darn thing to stop it, but doing everything to cause the ship to sink. Our economy is in desperite trouble at the moment. Canada has continuedd 25% tariffs against the United States in retaliation of Trump’s tariffs that he issued against Canada just one week ago. Even Trump said he was lifting Canadian tariffs for at least a month until March 2nd. Canada did not stop tariffs they put on the United States.

Trump is now threatening new tariffs against Canada, on products like Aluminum and Steel. The Canadaians will reciprecate. So where does that take our markets. It makes them nose dive to hell, and that’s where the markets are heading now.

Trump said that we need to “feel the pain” before things get better, and in that regard, that’s exactly were we are heading. If Trump instigates more tariffs against Canada, our closest friend and neighber, they are going to turn out the lights in at least 3 northern states in America. The power is about to get turned off, instead of just the 25% tariff that is now in effect that Americans must now pay for their electricity. There electric bills now have just gone up by 25%.

So Donald, who paying these tariffs? Not you or your partner in crime Elon Musk. Not Canada, but the people of the United States. Now they may experience TOTAL BLACKOUTS, including New York. Our New York Stock exchange is obviously located in New York City. So what’s going to happen with the traders loose their power and the market computers go down. That is the real posibility that we face today, because of the igorance of Donald Trump, thinking that he is the ‘Powerful Almighty’.

The world is so much interconnected these days, that having that stance especially with Canada, a country that we are so interconnected with, is just outright suicide. 97% of Canada’s export of oil came directly across the border into the United States. We were their largest trading partner, but since they cannot depend on us, they are going elsewhere for business right now. They are now working the the EU, China and Japan. Why? Because Donald J. Trump, our fearless leader when was supposed to save our economy, the reason why many people voted for him, has decided to instead, crash our economy.

How far will he go? That is the 50-million dollar question, but as of this morning, he’s not done and plans to continue on a path that will destroy America.

I’ll report on the market futures for tomorrow in my next post, and we will see where our ship is now pointing for tomorrow. This week is already turning out to be one of the worst weeks in American stock trading history as a government shudown is also scheduled for Friday. At the end of trading on Monday, if the markets stay open will already tell us if we are going into a recession.

A recession is a time in econonomicy activity that lasts longer than a few months. In other words, what Trump is doing may take a long time to turn around. Trump says we may need to feel the pain first. Well, that’s what’s coming, and it’s not something thay you can just turn off like a spicket of water.

In a nutshell, a common rule that indicates a recession is here is that there are at least two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Contributing factors can be a loss in industrial production and retail sales and other indicators. The effects of a recession sometimes are not felt immediately, but are gradual and sometimes only last for a few month or longer, but the economy may not recover to its former peak for years.

Telltale signs are a dropoff in employment, as unemployment will remail high well into the economic recovery, so it’s a time that seems to drag on and on along with markets tumbling, which is EXACTLY what is happening now.

Why is this happening now? The U.S. economy just a short few months ago was one that was the best in the world. So what happened?

Donald Trump happened! Our country decided to elect a convicted felon as their president. That’s what happened. Look at his cabinet. Most of his cabinet would never even qualify for the positions that they hold during normal times.

None of this would have happened if Kamala Harris was president. All of the mass layoffs wouldn’t have happened. Peoples private information, social security information and all personal information now being shared with Donald Trumps minions like Elon Musk and his people who are pouring through our personal data would have NEVER happened. Social Security would not be threatened. Medicade and Medicare wouldn’t be in danger of disappearing. World aid programs throughout the world would still be running, but they are not. The markets would be strong, not constantly falling and the world would not look at us as no longer a leader in the world economy.

There is GROSS INJUSTICE happening in our government now, and our Supreme Court is also responsible for allowing a convicted felon, an insurrectionist who under our laws in the Constitution of the United States that we are supposed to follow should never have qualified to be a president, has relinquished our Democracy to let who I consider an autocrat, someone who cozys up to Putin, and someone who would sell his soul and is doing just that to get his name on EVERYTHING, IS DESTROYING AMERICA.

Passionite about this I am, as I’m just as disgusted that this had to happen to our country, in a time that democracy and America was admired by the entire world. Now, the world is treating America as an outcast. The American dollar value s falling, and all of a sudden America is not as strong as we had hoped. Democracy is fragile, and what is happening now is a test of the American people to push past this, but first we still must figure out how to.

An update to the markets for Tuesday will be published soon.

 

The Stock Market Continues to Struggle – Week of March 10, 2025

March 9, 2025

Well, we now know what to expect with the stock futures starting tomorrow. Stocks will continue to fall heading towards what most economists claim will spur a recession if not turned around. But at least one person in Washington, Donald Trump, doesn’t care what happens. He is such a big loser, and has lost millions in his lifetime, he can only get numb, but he’s not broke, not like many of us regular folks, thanks to the man who what going to fix the economy.

Last week, the Dow Jones industrial Average fell 2.4% in trading. The S&P 500 index lost 3.1%, the Nasdaq composite plunged 3.45% and the small-cap Russel 2000 sold off 4.05%, both hitting five-month lows.

The futures will be down tonight going into tomorrow because the European exchanges always seem to reflect what’s going to happen in the U.S., as their markets open and close first each day. With clocks advancing 1 hour ahead as they did 2:00AM this morning, UTC is now just 5 hours ahead of CT instead of 6. Today, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that he expects 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum to go into effect as scheduled this Wednesday, prior to a slew of tariffs scheduled to be enacted on April 2.

At the moment, the Dow Jones futures are not looking good for Monday March 10th. So far, the DOW will appear to open at least down .5%, with the S&P500 futures down by .6%, with the Nasdaq 100 down by .7%. I will make a prediction prior to opening of the DOW just before the markets close in Europe in the morning.

Trump’s right hand man in crime, Elon Musk hasn’t had a great week. Two major things have happened to Musk. One of his space rockets blew up after takeoff and fell down to earth in a show that looked like a big fireworks display. The second major thing is Musk’s stock on Tesla.

The Tesla stock (TSLA) dives 10.35% to 262.67, in its seventh straight weekly loss. Ever since Musk teamed up with Trump, he has lost millions in a very short period of time. Thanks to Donald Trump and his tariffs on Canada, our northern neighbor has just slapped a 100% tariff on Tesla, so it don’t look like Musk will be selling many of his electric cars in Canada any time soon. As I have been explaining to my readers, tariffs effect the purchaser of the product being tariffed.

So Trump’s Tesla that may normally cost $50 thousand dollars now costs Canadians $100,000.

Talk about shoot themselves in the foot, this is a prime example of it Way to go Donald Trump and Elon Musk!    

THE FREE-FALL CONTINUES!!!