Weekend Question 2: Why Is the Stock Market’s Historically Very Good First Quarter Being Ignored or Downplayed?
No April Fool’s Joke: Stocks Have Best First Quarter in Many Years; NY Times Fails to Note
From MarketWatch.com via Investors Business Daily:
The Dow had its best first quarter since 2002, scoring a 3.7% quarterly gain. The Nasdaq Composite rose 6.1% during the period, marking its best first quarter since 2000. The S&P 500 increased 3.7%, its biggest first-quarter gain since the opening months of 1999.
“It’s been a strong quarter, even though it’s been built on lot of positive expectations for the future,” said Ed Peters, chief investment officer at Pan Agora.
So did this great news about the financial markets make the front page of The New York Times?
You’re kidding, right? It didn’t even get mentioned anywhere, nor was there any link to an article containing what MarketWatch reported, on The Times’ entire BUSINESS section web page (the “Market Update US” link is to Friday results only; click the picture to enlarge):
The Associated Press was only marginally better, reporting the quarterly results but not providing the historical perspective.
