Dow closed 33.74 points shy of a record yesterday.
Now, every financial media personality is crowing that a new Dow high is within reach. As if that really matters.
CNBC's resident (endlessly) talking head, Bob Pisani, went over the top, explaining that this new high is crucial for investor confidence.
Well, I think he's only very partially right. This year is already seeing a positive Dow and S&P. And, by the way, it's the S&P which has the largest fund presence, so that is the index which would really matter. But it is not anywhere near as close to an all-time high as the Dow is.
It's not clear that a new high, whether on a close, or intra-day, really matters as much as steady, quarterly positive returns for the index.
But, leaving these behavioral questions aside, I see that, as usual, the on-air media is back to personifying "the market." I wrote about this last June, here.
This morning, CNBC rolled out the moss-backed Art Cashen, a floor-based executive of one of the Street's brokerage firms, and caught NYSE CEO John Thain in passing, to solicit comments calculated to heighten the drama of whether or not a new intra-day Dow high would be made.
If anything demonstrates to what degree media coverage of the capital markets is more about entertainment than reasoned assistance to investors, today's sorry spectacle would be it.
No comments:
Post a Comment