Commentary
The extraordinary gains on Wall Street from Oct. 28 were stunning, but it’s the details that matter. What didn’t participate in the sudden exuberance were the tech stocks that have performed so well over the past three years and even dating back to 2009. The enthusiasm was all about value stocks, those old-fashioned companies with valuations that reflect actual assets and earnings and are likely to pay dividends.
What accounts for the sudden runup? There was no one reason, but it was also the day of the greatest news we’ve had from American business in three years: Elon Musk successfully took over Twitter and summarily fired its top executives, who had been running roughshod over free information flows since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic response. They were openly partisan and aggressive about it. Musk really has freed the bird and has plans for massive cuts in labor costs….