I said it before and I'll say iy again. NO ****ING BAILOUTS for these
goddamned crooks and idiots! The ****-for-brains chimp Bush planted
in the Fed chairman slot can cut rates another 100 basis points next
week and the equity markets will do exactly the same **** and worse.
You get a rate cut, the markets make a nice jump, the next day profit
taking sucks up any gains in the markets from the day before. See a
pattern forming here?
Here's a revelation; what the ****ing clown is really doing is setting
up the markets that will eventually cause MORE forclosures. How? By
causing the dollar to slide further and making the cost of living for
everyone more expensive. There are people who are barely making ends
meet as it is. But what happens when regular gas hits $4.00 - 5.00/
gal and bread reaches $5.00/loaf ??? A whole new round of foreclosure
will begin because by the end of the month they will not have been
able to save any money to make their mortgage payment...car payment,
etc.... In the meantime, the financial sector gets a huge shot in the
arm as the biggest welfare payment that will never trickle down to the
consumer. Where else in this world could you possibly go and pay top
dollar to get an ass reaming like you can in this country?
The time has long since come and gone to tell Wall Street, the Federal
Reserve, the SEC and our worthless piece of **** government to go ****
themselves and quit investing in America. For the uninitiated retail
level investor, they are little else than fresh meat for the taking.
Folks, it's time to invest elsewhere--unless, of course, you simply
want to short the **** out of the cor****ate slime.
AP
Stocks Decline After Huge Rally
Wednesday March 19, 5:53 pm ET
By Tim Paradis, AP Business Writer
Wall Street Pulls Back After Big Rally As Investors Worry About Health
of Financial System
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks pulled back sharply Wednesday, erasing most of
the previous session's big gains as investors grew concerned about the
possibility that banks remain vulnerable to further problems from
soured debt. The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 300 points
after rising 420 on Tuesday.
Some retrenchment was to be expected after the previous day's huge
advance. But the decline also reflects investors' continuing
uneasiness about the world's financial system and the U.S. economy.
Talk swirled about whether further write-downs are in the offing after
Merrill Lynch & Co. filed a lawsuit against a company involved in a
debt transaction with the investment bank. Merrill claimed in the
litigation that Security Capital Assurance Inc. owed it up to $3.1
billion after backing out of financial transactions.
News that the government plans to free up billions of dollars at
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a move that could help struggling
homeowners, for a time helped quell some of the market's fears. But it
couldn't stave off selling late in the session by investors who have
seen big advances eva****ate many times during the course of the credit
markets crisis and decided to preserve some of their gains.
Investors sent stocks charging higher Tuesday on stronger-than-
expected investment bank results and several moves from the Federal
Reserve in recent days, including a 0.75 percentage point rate cut
aimed at jump-starting the credit markets. The Dow had its second 400-
plus point gain in six sessions.
George ****pp, chief investment officer at Scott & Stringfellow, said
some investors are still uneasy about the health of the markets. He
said back-and-forth days will likely continue as Wall Street tries to
feel its way forward.
"Nobody wants to make the first move. There is liquidity on the
sidelines. It doesn't really know what to do right now," he said,
adding that investors are trying to determine whether moves by the Fed
and other regulators to stimulate the economy and stabilize the
markets will take hold.
"Clearly there is fear. I would say the needle is pointing more toward
fear than greed right now," he said.
The Dow fell 293.00, or 2.36 percent, to 12,099.66. Broader stock
indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 32.32,
or 2.43 percent, to 1,298.42, and the Nasdaq composite index fell
58.30, or 2.57 percent, to 2,209.96.
Bond prices jumped as investors again looked for safety. The yield on
the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price,
fell to 3.34 percent from 3.50 percent late Tuesday.
The Fed's rate cut, while sizable was less than many on Wall Street
expected. That helped give a boost to the anemic dollar against other
major currencies, which led many investors to dump hard assets from
oil to soybeans.
Light, sweet crude fell $4.94 to settle at $104.48 per barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange, the biggest one-day decline for a front-
month oil contract since 1991.
Gold for April delivery fell $59 to settle at $945.30 on the Nymex; it
was the steepest single-session drop for gold since June 2006 and came
after gold hit fresh highs Monday.
The decline in commodities prices hurt energy and materials stocks.
Exxon Mobil Corp. fell $4.04, or 4.6 percent, to $84.43, while Chevron
Corp. fell $4.23, or 4.9 percent, to $81.89. Aluminum producer Alcoa
Inc. fell $2.98, or 7.7 percent, to $35.62. All three companies were
among the steepest decliners of the 30 stocks that comprise the Dow
industrials.
Beyond commodities, the concerns over the soundness of the financial
system and the economy overshadowed upbeat results from Morgan
Stanley, whose earnings indicated that the bank is relatively healthy
like Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Goldman Sachs & Co. Investors
have been nervous in recent days about even big banks after JPMorgan
Chase & Co. struck a deal Sunday to acquire Bear Stearns, which was on
the verge of suc***bing to credit troubles.
Morgan Stanley rose 59 cents Wednesday to $43.45. Lehman fell $4.26,
or 9.2 percent, to $42.23, while Goldman declined $9.10, or 5.2
percent, to $166.49.
Investors' relief over Morgan Stanley follows better than expected
earnings news from Lehman and Goldman on Tuesday that gave the Dow its
biggest point gain in more than five years. The Dow got an extra boost
after the Fed's rate cut.
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which oversees
government-backed Fannie and Freddie, said the changes should result
in an immediate infusion of up to $200 billion into the market for
mortgage-backed securities. This could mean greater demand for
mortgages -- an aid for struggling homeowners hoping to refinance at
more favorable terms.
Investors were upbeat about the moves at the mortgage companies.
Fannie jumped $2.49, or 8.8 percent, to $30.71, while Freddie rose
$3.88, or 15 percent, to $29.90.
The Fed has slashed key rates by more than half since last summer,
when the mortgage crisis claimed its grip on the global credit
markets. But the housing and lending industries are still hurting.
Jeff Lancaster, a principal at Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough in San
Francisco, said investors are grappling with a host of fears that tend
to routinely reassert themselves, condemning recent rallies to being
short-lived.
"It just seems like there is the classic pendulum swing between fear
and greed and the fear, for the most part, is predominant."
He said investors are at times worried "that at some level maybe we
haven't seen anything yet" and that troubles with banks could spread
to consumers who might want to curtail their spending because of
further declines in home values.
At the same time, he sees some bursts of optimism.
"There is the sense that the Fed is riding to the rescue and is going
to engineer a kind of soft landing."
Late Tuesday, Visa Inc. launched the largest initial public offering
in U.S. history, selling 406 million shares at $44 apiece to raise
$17.9 billion. The world's largest credit card processor is not a
lender, and many investors are betting that it will easily survive the
faltering U.S. economy and credit climate. The stock traded up $12.50,
or 28 percent, at $56.50.
Declining issues outpaced advancers by more than 2 to 1 on the New
York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 5.3 billion
shares, compared with 5.38 billion shares traded Tuesday.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 17.80, or 2.61
percent, to 664.13.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average increased 2.48 percent, while
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 2.26 percent. Britain's FTSE 100
closed down 1.07 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.50 percent, and
France's CAC-40 declined 0.58 percent.
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com
|
