Posted on 06/01/2011 1:21:50 PM PDT by Signalman
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A triple dose of bad news sent stocks sharply lower Wednesday afternoon, with all three indexes set to have their worst day in months.
The day started with two disappointing U.S. economic reports that exacerbated fears about a slowdown in the recovery. And late in the trading session, Greece's debt got slapped with yet another downgrade.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 245 points, or 2%, with all but one of the blue chip index's 30 components lagging. Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500) and Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) were the worst performing stocks on the blue-chip index.
The S&P 500 (SPX) shed 26 points, or 1.9%, and the Nasdaq Composite (COMP) slid 53 points, or 1.9%.
Stocks were under pressure right at the open following a dismal report on private sector employment, and the selling gained momentum after the U.S. manufacturing report was released.
The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index for May fell to 53.5, falling short of economists forecast for a 57 reading.
"Weak economic data has started to snowball," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial. "Initially, we just had bad news from the weekly jobless claims data, but now we're starting to see a broad-based economic slump."
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Has reality caught up with the juggling clowns?
So much for that “recovery.”
Get this!
The bond market is going in one direction which is up-falling yields which is telling you quite clearly the direction of economic travel is downwards. Downgrades. QE3 (a third round of quantitative easing) is coming, said Maughn. ...Once again, the United States will step up as the marginal buyer of bonds, said Maughn.
One more big injection of cash into the bond market should take you through at least the summer season into the beginning of the fourth quarter...
“Unexpected”?
“....exacerbated fears about a slowdown in the recovery” What a misrepresentation! There has not been nor will there be a recovery under the Obamunists, as they kill capitalism and liberty, while their toadies trumpet “recovery”.
Welcome to the fall of the empire, hope you make it through everyone. \=}
High water risinrisin night and day
All the gold and silver are bein’ stolen away
Big Joe Turner lookin east and west
From the dark room of his mind
He made it to Kansas City
Twelfth Street and Vine
Nothin’ standing there
High water everywhere
High water risin, the shacks are slidin down
Folks lose their possessionsfolks are leaving town
Bertha Mason shook itbroke it
Then she hung it on a wall
Says, Youre dancin with whom they tell you to
Or you dont dance at all
Its tough out there
High water everywhere
I got a cravin love for blazing speed
Got a hopped-up Mustang Ford
Jump into the wagon, love, throw your panties on the board
I can write you poems, make a strong man lose his mind
Im no pig without a wig
I hope you treat me kind
Things are breakin up out there
High water everywhere
High water risin, six inches bove my head
Coffins droppin in the street
Like balloons made out of lead
Water pourin into Vicksburg, dont know what Im goin’ to do
Dont reach out for me, she said
Cant you see Im drownin too?
Its rough out there
High water everywhere
Well, George Lewis told the Englishman, the Italian and the Jew
You cant open your mind, boys
To every conceivable point of view
They got Charles Darwin trapped out there on Highway Five
Judge says to the High Sheriff,
I want him dead or alive
Either one, I dont care
High water everywhere
The Cuckoo is a pretty bird, she warbles as she flies
Im preachin the Word of God
Im puttin out your eyes
I asked Fat Nancy for somethin’ to eat, she said, Take it off the shelf
As great as you are a man
Youll never be greater than yourself
I told her I didnt really care
High water everywhere
Im gettin up in the morningI believe Ill dust my broom
Keeping away from the women
Im givin em lots of room
Thunder rolling over Clarkesdale, everything is looking blue
I just cant be happy, love
Unless youre happy too
Its bad out there
High water everywhere
One of the “bad” numbers of late has been lower “average” market values for houses in a number of areas, with those numbers used to suggest that those lower values, in the particular areas where the decrease is the most, suggest that “something is very ‘wrong’ with the housing market”.
If a normal “housing market” was as far “below” normal as some would like to suggest the current housing market is, then would not homelessness be as equally and drastically higher as well; in fact would not homelessness be rampant nationwide.
But it’s not. So, the lower “market values”, in their seemingly drastic level, are not, in fact, related to a drastic under supply of housing. In fact, they might actually suggest - in terms of how many people are prepared to be the owners of their own primary residence - an over supply of housing, left from the last housing bubble.
So, I have a different theory.
There is not really so much that is fundamentally wrong with the housing market, in terms of it doing what it should.
What was wrong was the false housing market and its mis-allocation of capital between 2003 to 2007, reflected in the housing market bubble. That’s what IS wrong, is the false housing market that led to the current housing market. Yes - mis-allocation of capital; capital seeking unreasonable returns in a false and unsustainable set of values, in the bubble “market values” in housing.
Now, many idiots are blaming a housing market that refuses to behave that way again as the problem of an economy still not growing robustly, if at all.
Well, G-d forbid a housing bubble “rescue” the economy again.
We need capital allocated to industrial and commercial business growth, not “housing” and we need that kind of capital allocation FIRST, BEFORE “housing”.
Then we will have jobs FIRST, people in jobs FIRST, people earning incomes FIRST, people saving FIRST, people accumulating the sum of a decent down payment before they tell the housing industry they’re looking - FIRST.
Then we need those people buying their first home on the scale of “what they need now” and not “what they’d REALLY love to have some day”, so that demand becomes more centered on “affordable” housing, and affordable mortgage payments, keeping the interests of builders in producing such housing more than producing housing market bubble chasing McMansions.
Then we will start to develop a sustainable housing market that reflects and is derived from a more stable employment outlook, instead of a housing market that pretends to be the “driver” of those things; which it can only do temporarily and only as a bubble, whether local, regional or national.
An economy “led” by housing represents an economy where the tail is wagging the dog. It cannot last. Housing, as a market, must be built on an economy that is built on everything else, so that the jobs, income and savings are there to support “housing”.
Dylan said it right.. The commies will drown along with everyone else who isn’t ready for it..
Sometimes I wonder if the commies will even know they’ve drowned too...unless CBS/NBC/ABC/CNN or PBS tell them, they might just never figure it out.
Hahahahah!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.