Recession Fears Blanket Wall Street; Dow Plunges 300 Points

Recession Fears Blanket Wall Street; Dow Plunges 300 Points

www.foxbusiness.com

The Dow lost another 300 points and the S&P fell 2.9% to its lowest level since October 2006 on a series of major news and economic reports that all raise serious questions about the direction of the economy.

The industrial average has now fallen more than 1,000 points 2008.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.thest reet.com

Well this is not unexpected but where will the DOW bottom be 11,000, 10,000?

I don't know enough to predict the bottom but many of the members here understood that this recession was overdue.

Now the President and Bernanke calling for a stimulus plan seems a little too late now doesn't it?

www.foxbusiness.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

On the msn homepage where I usually see quotes, they are having "technical difficulties" showing them. This is the first time I have seen that. I honestly don't know exactly what it means.

In my thread I've highlighted the decline in the small markets, which are a better indication because of the inclusion of domestic companies.

These markets have declined about 20% since their highs, this isn't correction mode, it's a bear market and has the potential to be worse.

Investors are panicking and have no idea what the central banks will do. Too scared to risk investing due to fears of more declines and more bad news.

As I said in my thread, we could see a market crash...

reply to post by Nyorai



I had a friend call today who trades on TDAmeritrade and was in the process of selling a particular stock which spiked back to a minimal loss status for him and when he punched in his sell ticket, it was rejected (unable to process message) generated and he missed out, this was followed immediately by the start of the BIG slide today.

It could be a conspiracy but I think it might have been the volume of trades overwhelming TDAmeritrade at that moment.

Here are a couple more articles on today's drop:

Recession fear sends Wall St. reeling...again

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Stocks fell on Thursday, with the benchmark S&P 500 plummeting to a 15-month low, as news of a plunge in regional factory activity and a hefty loss at Merrill Lynch further clouded an increasingly dire view of the economy.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke echoed the bleak assessment of the economy in comments to lawmakers, reiterating that the Fed was ready to act aggressively and throwing his support behind other efforts to counter the risk of recession.

www.marketwatc h.com

reply to post by JacKatMtn


We are heading for a huge sell off...

This economic rescue package has already failed. As the traders are saying;

too little, too late

reply to post by infinite


Thanks for the link infinite , As you and many others here have been saying for quite a long time this was pretty much imminent, I worry that it could be much worse than predicted because didn't much of these same people say that nothing was wrong only a few short months ago?

Now they are saying correction? Trust them?

I don't.

How do we correct an economy like this where we are just printing debt?

It's getting much worse

Bond insurers spark new credit-crisis fears

Fears that the credit crunch might be entering a new phase grew on Thursday as confidence fell in the strength of the insurers that guarantee payments on billions of dollars in bonds.

Shares in Ambac Financial and MBIA, the world’s biggest bond insurers, fell 65 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively, after Moody’s Investors’ Service raised the possibility that Ambac might lose the triple-A credit rating on which the insurers depend.

Credit crunch enters new phase

JacKatMtn, we are at Armageddon..

Take a look how bad it is in the UK

Investors bale out of Britain

The pound has plunged and stocks are officially in a bear market, but there are still ways to profit

The FTSE 250 index of medium-sized firms – a better indicator for the state of the British economy than the main FTSE 100 index because it contains more domestic businesses – has now dropped 20% since its peak in early June. The Footsie is down 6% since then and 4% since the start of the year.

He said: “Last month saw close to the biggest single monthly drop of the pound since the exit from the exchange rate mechanism at the start of the 1990s, and suggests that the world is developing a different view of the UK. This seems justified as there are lots of reasons to be bearish on the pound.”

In a dramatic reversal to last year, sterling dropped to $1.9575 last week, its lowest level since March. It has slid 8% in the past two months from $2.11, its highest since 1981. The fall against the euro has been equally dramatic: from 70p to 75p.

Originally posted by Nyorai
How do we correct an economy like this where we are just printing debt?

This might sound extreme, but some analysts support the idea of letting the economy burn out and then fix it when it's completely broken. You try and kick start it now, you risk doing it at the wrong time. Which can result in flaming the situation and making it even worse.

infinite, you are more in tune with indicators I know nothing about but with you showing the UK markets I found these two, one on Japan and one on Australia, I may be dense but this looks really bad.

Japanese stock market plunge rattles Fukuda

Australian stock market closes in red nine days straight

Is there anything good going on?

Interesting fact;

This is the worst start for the US markets since the 1920s

reply to post by infinite


Perfect time to introduce the Amero eh?

I dont know that much about finance and trade thou Im trying to understand and learn about it all the time, but If any of you "experts" could be so kind as to answer for me a question I have?

Firstly, in a worst case scenario, the US fall's hard into recession, stock market crashes to a level never seen before etc etc etc, how would this impact on US foreign policy and how would it affect the funding of US "adventures" around the world?

Secondly, Im assuming if it gets that bad, that banks would be trying to salvage what little asset value they have right? (correct me please if Im worng here), so does that mean they will be selling everything they have and would they be willing to reposess homes that have been mortgaged top buyers as a last hope of holding onto some form of asset to try and weather this storm?

Thirdly, How would this affect a acountry like Australia (which is where Im from), in regards to the fact that our some of our financial istitutions have invested heavily in the US markets and Im assuming they will suffer hard, yet China keeps buyiong our natural resources at alarming rates which would hold our economy up. Would the Chinese thirst for our goods be able to protect us and our economy from the US financial storm?

Thankyou for your time, hopefully someonbody can accurately clear this up for me.

Japan Nikkei 255 5 day chart



This index was 18,000 in March 2007, it's lost nearly 5,000 points.

So, what's that? 20% decline in less than a year.

Japan is facing a recession this year and the government knows it. It's economy currently at a stalemate, Australia has been strong but it's currency is becoming questionable with a stock market starting to decline.

worrying words from Cramer

Panic in it's infancy

"There's true panic out there," he said, adding that the panic was still "in its infancy."

[edit on 17-1-2008 by infinite]

So I thought I'd chime in here seeing as how my state's economist just came out and said we (Minnesota) are in a recession. Here's a link

Now I'm not an expert or anything, but the article states that MN lost 23,000 jobs over the past six months when in normal times we would add that many in a year... That can't be good. Anybody out there know any more about this? I'm glad I'm employed currently.

I have said it before and I will say it again: The core issue is not markets, interest rates etc. etc. The problem is a flawed monetary policy and system. A system based upon valueless money and credit is doomed once the bills come due and that's what we are seeing. I called this disaster 6 years ago when anyone and their mother could get a $200,000 loan.

Originally posted by Melbourne_Militia
Secondly, Im assuming if it gets that bad, that banks would be trying to salvage what little asset value they have right? (correct me please if Im worng here), so does that mean they will be selling everything they have and would they be willing to reposess homes that have been mortgaged top buyers as a last hope of holding onto some form of asset to try and weather this storm?

Depends, but you are right

To raise capital, a bank/insurance company may sell their assets to foreign investors or sell the organisation to China or Middle Eastern countries. Heck, even be nationalised (i.e Northern Rock)

From what I've heard, 7 million people could loose their homes in the United States due to this

In related economic news :

NYSE agrees to acquire rival American Stock Exchange to increase options business

NEW YORK - The New York Stock Exchange has agreed to acquire its smaller rival, American Stock Exchange, for US$260 million in stock.

The deal will later include the proceeds from the sale of Amex's headquarters a few blocks from the NYSE's Wall Street home.

Another bank suffering from the mortgage crisis:

WaMu Swings to $1.9B Loss

Washington Mutual (WM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) posted a net loss that missed analysts' estimates as the troubled consumer-centric company safeguards its business from future loan losses and damage amid the sour mortgage environment.

The bank's net loss of $1.87 billion, or $2.19 a share, was worse than the mean expectation of analysts polled by Thomson Financial by a whopping 83 cents a share. That compares to a profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.10 a share, a year earlier. Revenue of $3.41 billion fell short of analysts' mean expectation of a loss of $1.36 a share on $3.51 billion of revenue.