Media Virtually Ignores Dow's Best Bull Run in 80 Years

Photo of Tom Blumer.
By Tom Blumer (Bio | Archive)
May 5, 2007 - 07:24 ET

Did the Dow’s ‘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 EDT

NEW 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.

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

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 BizzyBlog.com.

—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters


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Listen my children

May 5, 2007 - 07:41 ET by Catherwood

Listen my children, we have all these Republicans trapped here for 90 minutes, so we are going to play a little game of gotcha!  Won't that be fun, children.  OK let's begin.

There really is no difference between the far-left dims and little children.  They name call, shout, cry and then run.I

Tom, The Dow has now risen i

May 5, 2007 - 09:08 ET by

Tom,

 The Dow has now risen in 23 of the last 26 sessions, marking its longest bull run since the summer of 1927,

be careful reminding the NYT of this as their headline will be "Bush leading economy into certain crash" 

we all know if a democrat held the presidency going into the election the news would be constant  "it's the economy stupid"

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmous test for President.   

Any of you remember the stoc

May 5, 2007 - 09:54 ET by newstalkmachine

Any of you remember the stock boom of the 90s? If Bill Clinton was president right now, the media would be talking about carving his image into Mt. Rushmore, but since George W. Bush has a (R) after his name, noone gives a damn....I can't stand these people...

was there ever a perspective

May 5, 2007 - 10:15 ET by

was there ever a perspective look at that market adjusted for the false inflation of the Dot-Coms?

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmous test for President.   

Dot coms don't cause inflat

May 5, 2007 - 10:21 ET by sarcasmo

Dot coms don't cause inflation, the Federal Reserve (which recently & suspiciously quit publishing M3) making too-many dollars does, but it's hard to tell just how much these days without alternative sites like Shadowstats. And the other uncovered financial story is stuff like gold market manipulation and derivative induced counterparty risk, which people do not like to think about, but (coughAmaranthcoughLTCMcough) it still exists...I'll come back and supply links when people scream for proof, no time now.
JMR

Sarc, i was speaking of the m

May 5, 2007 - 10:29 ET by

Sarc, i was speaking of the market and IT'S being inflated; not the generalised usage of the term

Supreme Court,  National Security,  Borders,  Fiscal Restraint, my litmus test for President.   

LA Times - confirm. no mention

May 5, 2007 - 13:23 ET by Gary Hall

I didn't see anything in the LA Times this morning, so I searched. No hits forfor the word "bull."

Of course their was the usual, "Lackluster growth in U.S. jobs" - with the word, "fear," right there in the bi-line.

I actually received an e-mail from an old senior friend the other day (Thrus or Fri) in which they complained about how horrible the stock market has done because of Bush - and that because of him senior's retirement portfolios have been hit very hard. I know for a fact, that they watch way too much news and reads way too much of their favorite NY Times.

Umm, Tom, the stock market cr

May 5, 2007 - 17:01 ET by dscott

Umm, Tom, the stock market crash occured during Herbert Hover's watch, both stock market crashes were preceded by wild speculation in the markets.  Best to emphasize the PEs here compared to the bond market.  As long as the long term bonds are running greater PEs of 21 (reciprocal of interest rate) than stocks money is going to flow to the stock market.  Once interest rates start going up, which hopefully they won't, the market is going to take a hit.

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius

Stocks

May 5, 2007 - 20:34 ET by Tom Blumer

dscott, point taken, but I don't see how the current market can be described as wildly speculative.

In my updates at my blog, I noted the possibility that the "terror discount" that has been hanging over the market for years may be dissipating. The markets' non-reaction to terror events or near terror events is sort of backhanded proof that the markets are still worried that bad things will happen, and that prices are still depressed from what they could be in a safer world.

I do not know how the markets' valuation is on a PE basis, but I do know that earnings have been coming in ahead of expectations for a couple of years. Also, on an inflation-adjusted basis, the Dow still hasn't gotten back to its 2000 or so peak. The S&P isn't even back to its non-inflation-adjusted peak.

Tom, look at this site on PEs

May 7, 2007 - 10:31 ET by dscott

Tom, look at this site on PEs and rates of return, not bad actually.

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius

S&P

May 7, 2007 - 20:35 ET by Tom Blumer

Thanks for the info; that site says it's current at 21. Found another link showing that the S&P's PE ratio has trended down for the last 5 years, but that it's still above the "historical norm" of 15:

http://www.bullandbe...

That link shows about a 17.5.

Both indicate that things aren't exactly overheated yet. I vaguely remember the S&P PE was fifty-something or more at the height of the 2000 bubble.

Good link, I saved that to my

May 8, 2007 - 09:09 ET by dscott

Good link, I saved that to my favorites.  it has a comparison feature below the chart in a dialog box, pick US Treasuries.  Using the 30 year bond interest rate is usually a good way to confirm whether a stock or index is over valued.

For NB readers, the interest rate is the reciprocal of the PE (Price Earnings ratio) and visa versa, to convert from one to the other just divide that number into 1. eg. 4.5% interest rate is 1/.045 = PE of 22.2, e.g. PE of 17.5 is 1/17.5 = 5.7% interest rate.  Anyone who does investing for their 401k or IRA needs to know that.

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” – Marcus Aurelius

The socialists plans to dem

May 5, 2007 - 17:29 ET by MilesD

The socialists plans to demolish it, so what's the point of talking about it?

When they knock the market apart because they keep fuel out of the US, it will just be labeled as another side effect of climate change

They have never given credit

May 5, 2007 - 19:57 ET by bigtimer

They have never given credit when credit is due as long as it anyone presiding over this time of great economic news with an 'R' behind their name...no, wait historic economic news, with everything this administration has been through, from an attack on our country, to natural disasters.

War is hell...

One thing about all of this folks, try as they might, the leftists are not going to be able to hide the real history and facts.

There are too many venues now to get the truth out...no one has to wait for decades anymore.

OK, class, here's tonight's a

May 5, 2007 - 20:27 ET by Del Dolemonte

OK, class, here's tonight's assignment. It should be fairly easy. Do a news search using your favorite search engine, and research the economic recovery that began in March of 1991 (that's the date the Feds give).

Now, search for news stories that show how this recovery was reported in the year and a half between its beginning and the 1992 Presidential Election.

Hint: You'll find it was ignored by the pro-left mainstream media, and not reported at all. Years later, I saw a NY Times editorial where they admitted as much. After all, they had a Democrat President to elect.