Did the Dow’s 80-Year ‘Bull Run’ Milestone Get to Your Paper’s Front Page Today?
Front page? Heck, the overwhelming odds are that it didn’t get mentioned anywhere.
It should have been.
At CNNMoney.com, writers Alexandra Twin and Steve Hargreaves appear to be the only ones who even recognized the significance of yesterday’s positive market close (bolds are mine):
Dow: Longest bull run in 80 years
Major gauges hit new milestones, but just barely; investors mull jobs report, oil prices, talk of a Microsoft-Yahoo merger.
May 4 2007: 4:09 PM EDTNEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Dow Jones industrial average squeaked out another record high Friday, making this the longest bull run in 80 years, as investors cheered tame inflation numbers, talk of big mergers and a jobs report that appeared just right.
….. The Dow has now risen in 23 of the last 26 sessions, marking its longest bull run since the summer of 1927, when the indicator ended higher in 24 of 27 sessions, according to Dow Jones.
Turning the tables on John Kerry, and building on the snark of Matt at Weapons of Mass Discussion — That would make it the best stock market run since, well, Herbert Hoover.
The pervasive lack of coverage is stunning. Two Google News searches (on “since 1927” [not in quotes] and “80 years,” [in quotes]) pulled up only one additional mention of the “bull run” beyond the CNNMoney item cited in this post — and at that link, the writer characterizes the once-in-80-year event as “the best in over half a century.” However, AHN’s Matthew Borghese did note that the S&P 500 is now “just points away” (about 1.5%) from its all-time high.
I also looked for coverage of the “bull run” at the home page and business home page of the New York Times on the web. There was nothing on the Times home page beyond the normal ticker. The coverage of the stock market was the very last linked item on the Business section home page; the related underlying article made no mention of the “bull run.”
Friday’s stock market news is on Page D4 of Saturday’s Washington Post print edition, with no “bull run” mention.
Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.
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UPDATE: I have to wonder if the “Terror Discount” is beginning to go away. If so, there may be a stock market “surge” on the horizon — one good surge leading to another, so to speak.
UPDATE 2: Business beat reporters can’t claim that they had no idea that the record was taking place. The widely-read Briefing.com, which issues 30-minute updates during the trading day, had this to say in its 11:30 a.m. report yesterday –
The major indices remain in positive territory, but they haven’t shown a lot of giddy-up today.
We suspect the advance is being constrained somewhat by an expectation that a pullback in the market is inevitable following a run for the Dow over the past month or so that has not been seen since 1929!
So before yesterday’s trading, the Dow was already on its best “bull run” in 78 years. That was also lightly covered the previous day.
Tom,
I’m not an alarmist, but I can’t help but think about what happened after that bull run of 80 years ago. Obviously, the problem of October 1929 and the period that followed was exacerbated by the lax rules of Wall Street at the time which lead to swift margin calls that caused lots more selling. However, people need to keep in mind that while the major indexes are probably all heading higher over the next year they are not likely to get there via a straight line. We should be ready for the occasional correction. If the current congress forces tax increases the correction will be harsh.
Comment by largebill — May 5, 2007 @ 9:13 pm
#1, don’t necessarily disagree. It all comes back to earnings, cash flow, PEs, and expectations, which, as always, could go south at any time.
I agree that the markets will suffer if the tax cuts expire, or even look like they’re going to expire.
Comment by TBlumer — May 5, 2007 @ 9:32 pm