Business News for Kids – Today Shapes Tomorrow

Yield Curves?	How to read stock info?
Currency Manipulation and Tariff Impact?	Black Monday?
What is a Tariff?	Great Depression vs. Recession of 08′
How do Businesses raise money?	Depression vs. Recession
Emigration in the U.S.?	Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index?
Stock Performance since 2008?	Consumer confidence?
Is Full Employment good?	Expansions and Contractions in service and manufacturing
Presidents and the Economy	CEO, CFO, Shareholders, and Board
How do we have a $17T deficit?	What is sales tax?
What is the debt ceiling?	Mergers and Acquisitions?
What is inflation?	ADR?
What is a credit score?	Buying back shares?
Basics of the Economy	Starting a Lemonade Stand
Does Studying Pay Off?	Supply and Demand
What is Currency and Foreign Currency Exchange rate?	Quantitative Easing?
What is stronger or weaker currency?	Working and Unemployed?
What does the dollar slide mean?	Bank Loans and 2008
How does money grow in a bank?	International Debt Rankings
What is a federal funds rate?	Fed Tapering of Q.E.
What is interest and APR?	New Federal Reserve Chair
	1st Woman Fed Reserve Chair

Published Every Monday Since 2007 | Volume 750| April 12, 2021

So far YTD these many weeks were up (Bull), down (Bear), or draw (Bull/Bear) …
Bulls (Markets UP) = 08…
Bears (DOWN) = 05… and
Draw = 01

Markets at their record highs!

The DOW was up +578 points or +1.7%, S&P 500 +94 points or +2.3%, and the NASDAQ +305 points or +2.2% for the week ending April 9th. US markets closed at record highs. The DOW is now approaching 34,000, S&P500 is above 4,100 and the Nasdaq is very close to crossing 14,000, yet in another record territory!
Oil dropped -$2.1 or -3.4% to $59.34 per barrel. Oil prices continue to hover close to $60 per barrel which is a positive sign for the energy industry which is under pressure for the last few years.
Covid cases are rising again across the globe. Experts are fearful of a potential 4th wave driven by people becoming more complacent, governments relaxing rules to open businesses, and the Covid virus mutating into a more potent virus. Vaccine remains effective protection against Covid. Vaccine deployment in the US is going well. Close to 1/3 of the US population is vaccinated with at least one or two doses. However, there are many holdouts who are not getting vaccinated. These people can spoil the economic recovery, increase virus mutation, and cause more havoc on others who are already following CDC guidelines.

US Covid-19 deaths have crossed unfortunate mark of 575K (+7K from last week). US Covid deaths > than US lives lost in WW I, II, Vietnam war, and 9-11 Combined!!
Global Covid cases ~136 million (+5M); Global deaths > 2.9 million;
US Covid cases = ~32million (~24% of world); US deaths ~ 575K (or ~20% of the world)
The richest nation on earth US has about 4.3% of the world population but it has lost 20% of the lives lost worldwide! Source: www.worldometers.info

In YTD 2020 Dow is up +10.4%, S&P500 is +9.9% and the NASDAQ is +7.9%
In 2020 Dow was up +7.2%, S&P500 is UP+16.3% and the NASDAQ is UP +43.6%
In 2019 DOW was up +22.3%, S&P500 up +28.9% and NASDAQ up +35.2%
In 2018 the DOW was down -6.7%, S&P500 down -7.0% and NASDAQ down -4.6%.
In 2017 the DOW was up 25.1%, S&P500 up 19.4% and NASDAQ up 28.2%