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As US stock market hits new highs, 2 of 3 Americans are cutting back on spending, survey shows (apnews.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence declined slightly this month as gas prices stayed high and inflation remained elevated, a sharp contrast to soaring stock prices hover near record levels.

The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index slipped 0.7 points to 93.1 in May, the first decline after three months of gains. The measure hasn’t fallen as much this year as other gauges of consumer attitudes, but it has been stuck at a low level since the pandemic. Before COVID-19, it regularly reached 130.

A separate gauge of consumer sentiment released last week by the University of Michigan fell to a record low this month. Soaring gas and food costs have worsened inflation that is outpacing the average growth in paychecks, reducing most Americans’ purchasing power. Americans have soured on President Trump’s economic policies, polls show, potentially creating problems for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.

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[–] 1 point 4 months ago

Stock price is dependent on the average trade price, so technically you could just drive up a stock if you had limitless funds.

But the fun stuff is market cap (the "value") of a company only takes the current price into account, because how else could it work?

So recent trades drive up the value of a stock that most people bought when it was cheaper, doesn't mean a billion or trillion or whatever dollars went into it recently. Only means there are more buyers than sellers and the price has gone up.

It also means that you can't actually sell the entire company worth of stock and get the value listed as its market cap. There wouldn't be demand for it and it would plummet hard.

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