STOCKS SMASHED AS EXISTENTIAL FEAR COMES BACK WITH A VENGEANCE: Here's What You Need To Know

TBI ^ | 7-11-2011 | Joe Weisenthal

[blam]

STOCKS SMASHED AS EXISTENTIAL FEAR COMES BACK WITH A VENGEANCE: Here's What You Need To Know

Joe Weisenthal
Jul. 11, 2011, 4:00 PM

Image: European Southern Observatory

Today was a day of pondering existential threats to entire political/financial systems. Not surprisingly, everything sold off pretty hard.

But first, the scoreboard:

Dow: -142.35
NASDAQ: -57.18
S&P 500: -24.18

And now, the top stories:

* All weekend we talked about Italy, and then guess what: Italy crashed today: After opening down just a modest 1%, the main FTSE MIB index fell 3.9% (though at one point it was closer to down 5%). Bonds yields ripped higher like crazy, in a move that truly threatens the eurozone in an existential manner. Italy is too big to rescue.

* Stepping back a moment, there was negative news out of China over the weekend: Inflation was hotter than expected and imports were slower than expected. Partly due to that, and partly as a response to Friday's weak jobs report, most Asian markets had a rough night. (Shanghai actually ended higher, though Hong Kong got smashed).

* In the US there was no data. Everyone's watching the debt ceiling fight out of the eye that they're not using to watch Europe. The two sides aren't anywhere close. Both Boehner and Obama held press conferences that confirmed how far the two sides are apart. Today's negotiations wrapped up just after 3:30.

* So between Italy, the rest of the PIIGS, Chinese inflation, and the debt ceiling crisis, it was a perfect recipe for a stock drubbing. The dollar surged and gold surged, while the industrial commodities got hammered. The euro got killed.

* In terms of corporate news, there are a few things of note, as earnings season

(snip)

[proxy_user]

You call that a plunge? I can still remember -1200 a couple of hours two years ago.

[BipolarBob]

Today was just a hiccup. I actually bought some stock today. That’s what you do on down days and sell on up days.

[suthener]

The latest beginning of the end?

[blam]

Existential Crisis

An existential crisis is a stage of development at which an individual questions the very foundations of his or her life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose or value.[1] This issue of the meaning and purpose of existence is the topic of the philosophical school of existentialism.

[BobinIL]

If you ask me the stock market is an inflating bubble. It should have popped long ago but it just keeps getting higher and higher.

[Broker]

The good news remains this, nobody has a clue what to do. Therefore, the markets continue to be an argument. Let all the prophets dance on pins with speculative guesses and predictions. As for me, The Broker has seen much worse and much better.

[elpadre]

We have allowed ourselves to become too tightly entwined with the global market. IMO our’s should be a much more loose relationship free from these overbearing entanglements which can devastate the US economy and drive it into a spiraling nosedive..

I really don’ know what I'm talking about. But it sounds good, doesn't it?

[Uncle Ike]

” overbearing entanglements which can devastate the US economy “

Our ‘devastation’ is mostly self-inflicted....

[Bitsy]

I can still remember -1200 a couple of hours two years ago.

Man, did that hurt!

[Bitsy]

I really don’ know what I’m talking about. But it sounds good, doesn’t it?

Hey, that kind of aproach got obama elected and he still doesn’t know what he’s talking about;) BTW, it did sound good.

[CPT Clay]

I’ve been treating it like a “suckers” rally ever since I regained the $$ I lost in the crash.

[Aevery_Freeman]

It's called QE2 but now that is over - POP!

[OneVike]

Gentlemen, get ready for the stock market to drop at least 2,000 when the “ONE”, and Timothy Geithner pull out the federal money they invested to artificially prop up the market.

They will have no choice, because the money will be needed elsewhere to prop up other sectors of the economy so it will look like Obama is doing a good job for re-election.

It won’t work, because the market will fall farther as Obama will realize he faces a landslide loss in Nov 2012. Then about November 15 as the reality of what the voters said sinks in, the market will start climbing again. Businesses will start hiring around December for a big Shopping season as Americans begin to feel good about the future, and the feeling will carry into the new year as the big money men start to loosen up their cash to invest.

In the meantime, gold will hit about $1,800.00 to &2,000.00 and even after the dizzying effects of Obama’s end subside, gold will settle around $1,700.00 as the dollar begins to gain strength against the backdrop of Europe’s continuing troubles.

I talked to God and He said so. Well, he left an impression upon my so strong as to make me feel as such anyway. Mark this day on the calender and get back with me in February 2013. You will learn that I am right, because the world needs to be thriving in order for men to turn from God in droves, and turn to the world and the new world order which will be ushered in by a Republican.

Rem,ember, Christ will return because men reject him for the world, and that will only happen in a robust economy when all men are doing good. In bad times men turn to God, in financially good times they turn from him.

[hinckley buzzard]

Now that QE2 has shot its wad, the market will look very different soon. After all, it was only Bernanke's self-admitted efforts to "creat a wealth effect" by pumping the markets, that prevented a major correction already. Now, he is out of gas. I'd sell if I had any long positions.