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YOLO Crowd's Record Dip Buying Binge Calms a Jumpy Stock Market

YOLO Crowd's Record Dip Buying Binge Calms a Jumpy Stock Market

Bloomberg19-05-2025

Retail traders went on a record dip buying spree Monday, reversing a 1% decline in the S&P 500 Index triggered by the US credit downgrade from Moody's Ratings late last week.
Individual investors purchased a net $4.1 billion in US stocks through 12:30 p.m. in New York, the largest level ever for that time of day — and broke the $4 billion threshold by noon for the first time ever, according to data compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co. quantitative and derivative strategist Emma Wu.

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What we know so far: Trump and Musk's spectacular public blowup rocks Washington
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Second, when Trump travelled to the Middle East, Musk was reportedly piqued that his arch-rival, Sam Altman of OpenAI, won a deal to build one of the world's biggest artificial intelligence data centres in Abu Dhabi. Musk worked behind the scenes to try to derail the deal if it did not include his own AI startup, according to the Wall Street Journal. Third, Musk was working at the White House as a 'special government employee', which is limited by law to 130 days; when Musk sought an extension, officials said no, perhaps because he had put so many backs up. Fourth, last Saturday Trump suddenly announced that he was cancelling the nomination of the Musk ally Jared Isaacman to be the administrator of Nasa. And fifth, there was the 'big, beautiful bill', currently navigating Republicans in the Senate. Musk said in social media posts that it would increase the already massive budget deficit to $2.5tn, undermining his work at Doge. 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Trump, now making plenty of his own money from deals in the Gulf and elsewhere, seems to have decided that Musk has outlived his political usefulness. There is no threat to his command of the Republican party, where Musk is seen as something of an interloper. But what of the Democrats? For now they only have to get out of the way and gleefully watch the spectacle unfold. Some suggest an 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' approach to Musk, whose money could swing elections in their favor. Others say a man who gave a Nazi-style salute on inauguration day, and whose Doge cuts have already caused deaths in the world's poorest countries, is beyond redemption. From this perspective, a nihilistic war between the world's most powerful man and the world's wealthiest man brings to mind former secretary of state Henry Kissinger's remark about the Iran-Iraq war: 'It's a pity they can't both lose.'

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