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| Europe |
| Doom -- but lots of stocks were a good buy... |
| 2008-10-12 |
| The roar was visceral: a gutsy grunt of defiance. For a few heady minutes on Friday afternoon, traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange cheered aloud as they briefly heaved the stock market into positive territory. The effort was Herculean: a dwindling band of optimists pouring billions of dollars into a few selected shares in the hope of encouraging others to rally round. Twice they succeeded, only to see the forces of panic overwhelm them each time. Finally, New York closed for the weekend, once again in the red: bringing temporary relief to a global rout that has reduced the value of most international markets by a fifth in just five brutal days. Listening to the animal language of the trading pit, it is easy to forget that securities trading is just a mathematical invention -- nothing but the abstract agglomeration of pricing data. The sober Reuters wire service wrote on Friday of investors being "castrated". Scandinavian bank Enskilda warned clients that markets were "at riot point". "It's like someone cancelled gravity yesterday," added one London trader. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #8 Yield and risk. This whole crisis is due to risk not being priced properly. And in large part that was due to the belief that large systemic risks no longer existed. The market was of course incredibly prescient because governments are now taking those systemic risks over (ie they no longer exist for the market). While governments can take on much larger risks than businesses, some risks are even to large for some governments as we see in Iceland as the country goes bust. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2008-10-12 22:59 |
| #7 I was (thanks to my broker) able to fish some really solid stocks out of the hands of panicked sheep. They are going to look VERY good in 5 years or more. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-10-12 16:30 |
| #6 BP is right. Yield determines how profitable it is for banks to lend. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2008-10-12 14:24 |
| #5 Ima hope Jack is right. I'm kill two roosters to hold the line at 8,000. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-10-12 12:58 |
| #4 Jack, Will you share what you're smoking? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-10-12 11:06 |
| #3 It will be interesting to watch the Asian and European markets on Monday since the American market is closed. Will they react to Friday after 2 days to think about it? Or, will they sit on their hands and wait 2 more trading days until Tuesday when the American markets are back? Plus the American markets get to see what the G7 came up with in Paris. My guess is that the bottom feeders have been bleary eyed chart readers the last few nights and days and there will be a surge of buying up future goodies like pharma and consumables as well as transportation. I am willing to bet we get back to 9k by end of the month and possibly 9.5k by Christmas. Of course it all depends on the election - as long as Obama has the lead the market is susceptible. |
| Posted by: Jack is Back! 2008-10-12 10:44 |
| #2 "nothing matters only yield" "nothing matters only yield" "nothing matters only yield" "nothing matters only yield" "nothing matters only yield" "nothing matters only yield" "nothing matters only yield" |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-10-12 10:39 |
| #1 "it's like there was an avalanche of metaphors" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-10-12 06:42 |