General Discussion

....some have not and small businesses are fairing poorly in many instances. The stock market reflects the former and not the latter and certainly not the average individual. The 1/3 of the wage earning populace that is living paycheck to paycheck and the many others that have less than $1,000 on hand for emergencies probably aren't in the stock market game, be it up or down. Add to the list of those not having financial fun are many farmers, the wine and spirits industry and a bunch of others who don't have deep pockets and for whom Trump policy, or lack of policy, has seriously hurt them. And then there are the increasing number of residential property owners seeing their biggest financial holding going underwater in many markets. With tech and other companies, some publicly, some quietly, shedding workers in favor of AI, the only sector adding workers is healthcare. Necessity-- groceries, gas, housing and clothing along with energy and healthcare will keep economic activity at a base level-- but maybe not a high level-- and leave a lot of others hurting.