A record each for almost every month and a new yearly record.
Granted, not all are for sales, but………….
Category: Business
Dow Jones Starts ‘20 With a 330-Point Bang as Stock Market Rushes to New High
The stock market started 2020 with a bang as the Dow Jones Industrial Average knocked out a brand-new high with a 330-point gain. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 also made fresh highs.
The Nasdaq surged 1.3%, the Dow Jones industrials rallied 1.2%, and the S&P 500 advanced 0.8% in today’s trading. Small caps tracked by the Russell 2000 lagged, down 0.4% after paring sharp earlier losses. Preliminary data showed higher volume on both exchanges vs. Tuesday.
Gun-grabbers; The best gun salesmen in the U.S.
With Virginia Democrats taking over all branches of state government, a firearms store owner in the state says sales of guns, magazines, and ammunition are up 200%, and more of his customers are paying in cash.
“This is the largest Christmas and November, December that we’ve had, basically, since Trump has come on board. The only other person that was a better salesman right now is when we had President Obama,” said Jerry Rapp, owner of SpecDive Tactical, in Alexandria, comparing the administrations of President Trump and his White House predecessor, Barack Obama.
“Every time [Obama] turned around he was going to ban something or make something illegal. But even that isn’t even close to the amount of sales we’re selling right now of magazines, of guns, of every kind of gun from pistol, rifle, shotguns, to AR platforms” and ammunition, Rapp told the Washington Examiner. “We can’t keep it in stock.”
Since Democrats took the majorities of both chambers in Virginia’s state legislature after big wins in the November elections, gun control proposals that include bans on “assault-style” weapons, restrictions on magazine capacity, universal background checks, and restrictions to one gun a month purchases have all been brought forth.
Same at the federal level, with House Democrats entering their second year in the majority.
Virginia freshman Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton, who was previously a state senator, has proposed legislation in Congress to use credit card data to track gun purchases. The bill faces long odds on Capitol Hill. News about her idea has made it to Virginia firearms customers.
Rapp said his clients are increasingly concerned about privacy issues. Since the November elections, they’ve been purchasing with cash rather than credit cards.
Rapp, whose business includes gun safety training, says that some of the proposed legislation also affects his course instruction.
“From a gun place, the biggest [proposed legislation] that affects me right now, because we’re a training company that sells guns, is if you are a trainer or if you train your son or daughter, that you could become a felon, but as a training place, we do safety,” Rapp said. “We do training both from a basic pistol, rifle, shotgun to advanced combat shootings and tactical shootings for the military, law enforcement, three-letter agencies.”
U.S. Stocks Climb Again in Santa Claus Rally as All Three Main Indexes Close at Records
U.S. stocks powered higher again Thursday, helped by reports of record year-end retail sales, though trading volumes were light and markets were closed in Europe, Hong Kong and Australia for another post-Christmas holiday.
Amazon led the market up, with the stock gaining more than 4% after the e-commerce giant said the holiday shopping season broke all records.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 105.94 points or 0.37% to 28,621.39 and has gained for 9 of the past 11 trading days to post a year-to-date rise of 22.69%.
The S&P 500 gained 16.53 points, or 0.51%, to 3,239.91 for a year-to-date return of 29.24%.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 69.51 points, or 0.78%, to a new record at 9,022.39 after posting a record close for a 10th straight day, the longest winning streak since July 1997. Year-to-date the Nasdaq has risen 35.98%
Paul Krugman — Nobel Prize-winning economist, retired Princeton professor, New York Times columnist, and village idiot — was not alone in predicting a worldwide recession upon the election of Donald John Trump as president.
3 days after we made Donald John Trump president, Business Insider reported, “One of Trump’s major economic policies could lead to a ‘global recession.'”
That one policy was the keystone to his economic plan: engaging the trade wars.
Business Insider said, “Trump made the free trade debate one of the central topics of his campaign after criticizing China, Mexico, and Japan. He suggested putting a 45% tariff on Chinese imports, said he would declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office, proposed taxing imports from Mexico, argued in favor of ‘ripping up’ trade deals, and called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, ‘a rape of our country.’
“If Trump were to pursue these policies, Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citi, wrote in a note to clients that it might spark a global trade war, ‘which could easily trigger a global recession.'”
The story said researchers at Deutsche Bank warned, “The biggest threat to growth is a possible protectionist turn, which could depress global trade and even trigger trade wars.”…………
On August 12, 2019, NBC reported, “President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is increasing the odds that America will be thrown into a recession, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs.”
But once again, the experts were wrong.
President Trump did not kill the world economy. In fact, the opposite happened.
CNBC reported, “Global stock markets have been on a torrid run in 2019, adding more than $17 trillion in total value, according to Deutsche Bank calculations.
“The value of global equities began the year just under $70 trillion but has now surpassed $85 trillion, according to a chart from Deutsche Bank’s Torsten Slok.”
That is a 25% increase, which means 2019 was a pretty good year for investors and the global economy.
The story said, “The large climb for world markets has been largely dominated by the U.S. markets, however. The rally in the U.S. has been broad, with the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average and Russell 2000 all rising more than 20% this year.”
Enjoy because the good times will not last forever. They never do.
Thousands of lawful California gun owners are being denied ammunition purchases. Here’s why
It’s not a bug. This is a feature of the new law.
Christopher Lapiniski, operations manager at Last Stand Readiness & Tactical, describes the hurdles to buying ammunition in California on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2019, at the gun store on Florin Road in Sacramento.
Zachary Berg usually buys guns and ammunition with relative ease. After all, he’s a Sutter County sheriff’s deputy and needs them for his job. California’s stringent gun laws usually don’t apply to him.
But Berg couldn’t buy shotgun shells at his local hardware store in Yuba City prior to a duck hunting trip last month. He was rejected under California’s stringent ammunition background check program that took effect July 1, because his personal information didn’t match what state officials had in their database.
Berg was one of tens of thousands of Californians who have been turned away from buying ammunition at firearms and sporting goods stores, even though they appear to be lawfully able to do so, a Sacramento Bee review of state data shows. Between July 1 and November, nearly one in every five ammunition purchases was rejected by the California Department of Justice, the figures show.
Of the 345,547 ammunition background checks performed, only 101 stopped the buyer because he or she was a “prohibited person” who can’t legally possess ammunition, according to state Department of Justice data.