With stocks pulling back and bonds rallying, today Art Cashin said we are seeing a flight to safety globally.
On this day…
November 20 (King World News) – Art Cashin: “On this day in 1820, first mate, Owen Chase, was on deck of the three masted whaling ships, Essex, hurriedly tried to repair one of the four whaling boats that had just been damaged in the day’s whale hunt. The captain, George Pollard, Jr, and a large part of the 20 man crew were about a mile away in the three other whaleboats harpooning sperm whales.
As Chase worked to rejoin the others, he felt the ship bump a bit on the starboard side. Since the seas were relatively calm, Chase rushed to the rail to see what caused the bump. What he saw to his amazement was an enormous sperm whale, as big as the Essex itself and floating parallel to the ship.
The first mate’s initial reaction was that this was a gift. But, even though he was just 23 years old, his years of experience told him that the whale’s reaction to a harpoon could be violent and damage the Essex, especially since the tail was dangerously close to the ship’s rudder.
The whale drifted away and Chase returned to work on the whaleboat. But, when the whale was a little over a quarter mile away, it turned and faced the Essex. He then raced toward the boat and struck the bow with “ten-fold fury and vengeance” as Chase would describe it. Not through yet, the whale began to swim under the vessel and then turned to ram it in the side. The Essex quickly took on water and Chase and the rest of the on-board crew grabbed whatever supplies and instruments they could carry, lowered their whaleboat and joined the captain and the other whaleboats.
For the next 83 days, they sailed exposed to sun and storm for over a thousand miles with crew members dying of thirst or hunger until finally the survivors reverted to eating the remains of the dead to survive.
Amazingly, the majority of survivors returned the Nantucket and returned to the whaling business. The captain, George Pollard, Jr. picked up the reputation of a jinx and could never raise a crew again. And then some guy named Herman Melville read about the Essex and used it for the base of a story of some kind.
The stock market action on Tuesday was hardly heroic. Weak reports from some key retailers torpedoed that sector as the holiday selling season is just beginning.
Home Depot dropped a whopping 5%, providing the vast bulk of the drop in the Dow. Kohl’s, Macy’s and other key retailers also got pounded, making the retail sector, as noted, one of the primary casualties of the day’s trading.
Another sector weighing on the markets was energy, as the threats of new supplies drove the crude price lower.
The Dow had actually opened better but reversed lower before the echo of the opening bell had faded. The post- opening selling continued into late morning and from then on, stocks traded rather indecisively.
Once again, declines beat advances on the NYSE, a continuing erosion beneath the headline space. There are also confusing numbers of new highs and new lows, which has produced a number of Hindenburg Omens in recent weeks.
One of the things that concerned traders was the post-close vote in the Senate of the bill on the status of Hong Kong. Traders worried that a veto-proof vote in the Senate could torpedo trade talks with China.
Sure enough the Senate passed its version of the bill unanimously. The House had passed its version unanimously a few weeks back. The bill will now go to conference to produce a single common version. …..more here