One chart shows how the stock market is completely decoupled from the labor market - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/09/one-chart-shows-how-stock-market-is-completely-decoupled-labor-marke
First, in case it wasn’t already tremendously clear: The stock market is not the economy. Roughly only half of Americans own any stocks at all, even through job-sponsored vehicles like 401(k) retirement plans. The financial interests of #Wall Street and Main Street are often directly at odds; note, for example, the market’s tendency to tank on news of rising wages.
Second, the disconnect between the stock market and real-world economy has been growing for decades. Equities and wages traveled on similar trajectories through the 1980s, for instance, but since then the markets have been on fire while worker pay has languished. A stock rally in response to news of Depression-era unemployment rates suggests that split is growing, and may even be entering a new phase.
Finally, there’s the point raised in a Post story last month that investors aren’t pricing stocks based on what’s happening now, but rather on what they think will be happening in the coming weeks, months or even year.