IS THE BOOM OVER?

As I look at the behavior of the DJIA this last week (sometimes called the "DOW"), I get the feeling that we have entered a bubble phase of the stock markets.  When I look at the other indices, however, they are all down for the month or up just a little: the SandP 500 (up 1%), with the NASDAQ Composite, the NASDAQ 100, and the Russell 2000 all down.   Only the DJIA has increased ( up nearly 3% this month).

Certainly, a problem since the tax cut bill is that companies have wasted a lot of money on stock buybacks and probably in buying companies that they don't know how to run.

The latest leg of the bull market has been fueled by last year's tax cuts that also contributed to soaring corporate earnings along with a fresh round of share buybacks that is expected to eclipse $1 trillion this year. Buybacks have totaled $4.7 trillion since the crisis.*

I continue to think that we are good for the rest of this year,** but next year (2019) begins to look more and more iffy.  Just too much money was dumped on industry too fast.  At least they have been spending an increased amount on plant and equipment, as their hesitancy to do so has been the biggest drag on GDP.

* https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/19/the-great-bull-market-is-dead-and-heres-whats-next-bank-of-america-strategist-says.html
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2018/07/economy-tariffs-and-stock-markets.html
http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2018/09/government-debt-and-mixed-economic.html