Talking The Market Down -- CNBC -- August 26, 2020

CNBC: as discussed before, it is difficult for CNBC to turn on a dime. Two weeks out, the producers start preparing the theme for the day and start lining up guests. As the date approaches, the theme and the guest line-up is tweaked, until finally the day of the broadcast, the theme is set and guests appears. This continues on a rolling basis. 

It will be interesting to watch the talking heads continue to try to talk this market down.

Holy mackerel. The NASDAQ is exploding, trending toward a gain of 150 points. Holy mackerel. The Dow, negative, is also trending better. The S&P 500 trending toward a gain of another 20 points. Both the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 will set all-time records.

So, what influences the market:

• the Fed: that's the buzz; that this market is all about the Fed; who am I to argue; CNBC is leading that Jay Powell won't pour anti-retardant on this fire called the NASDAQ in tomorrow's speech;
• fundamentals/earnings: 2Q20 earnings are coming in a whole lot better than expected;
• FOMO: explains the action of the millennials;
• global geopolitics: peace continues to break out
• stimulus: stalemate continues; it behooves the Dems to stall at this point; the airlines have announced there will be major furloughs, layoffs if no stimulus;
  

So, that's it. There's one more factor. We'll get to it in a few minutes.

First, of the five bullets (data points) above what has changed between yesterday and today to drive the NASDAQ up 150 points, the S&P 500 up 20 points? What has changed in the last 24 hours?

I'll provide my take on it in five minutes -- 11:02 a.m. CDT. See if you can guess what I'm thinking. 

[Later: okay it's now 11:21 a.m. CDT. Did you come up with the answer? What is different about today -- what changed from yesterday to today? No, not the hurricane. The market has known about the hurricane for days if not weeks. This is what is new: Trump's poll numbers in so-called toss-up states. Biden's policies: looking backward; depressing; sullen. Trump's policies: looking forward; exciting; positive. Trump's poll numbers: that's the only thing that has changed in the last twelve hours.]

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Indy 500

On August 24, 2020, I wrote:

I completely missed (as in, avoided) the Indy 500 except for the first ten laps and the last ten laps. What a disappointment. Too many commercials for the Indy 500, and that finish. Are you kidding me? Five laps left and Indy 500 owners had seen enough. Called the race with five laps to go. I've never seen anything like it. 

Today, the television ratings are out. And they are not good, despite the spin. NBC's Indy 500 TV ratings were worst ever, but not bad for 2020. Let's see what the writer has to say (https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/nbcs-indy-500-tv-ratings-worst):

The Indy 500 pulled a 2.23 household rating in its second year since moving from ABC to NBC for its worst showing since it became a live national broadcast.

The event was postponed from its traditional Memorial Day weekend Sunday date to Aug. 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic and faced direct competition from NBA basketball, PGA golf and the NASCAR Drydene 311, which was broadcast on NBC Sports and started an hour and a half after the green flag flew in Indianapolis.

So folks preferred golf, #BLM, and the Drydene 300 (are you kidding me?) over the Indy 500 -- said to be the greatest sports spectacle of all time (except for the World's Series, the Stanley, Cup, the World Cup, the FedEx PGA Tournament, and the Super Bowl)? 

LOL. The writer did not mention the start-to-finish commercials -- I couldn't tell if the Indy 500 was a live race or an infomercial. I tried watching, but couldn't. On top of that, the writer did not mention the incredibly bad last five laps, but, of course, by that time, that would not have affected the ratings .