As the celebrations in Washington, DC go long into the night with 10 major inauguration balls and parties on tap, traders on Wall Street have not been quiet. The DOW JONES industrials dropped below 8,000 late this afternoon losing over 300 points. I would say that having five billion shares trading today is a huge illustration of stakeholders uncertainty on where to invest their money.
The challenge for our new president is to figure out what reaction these stakeholders will have to his recovery plan.
Juice readers. Based on the latest Wall Street data is this a good time to buy stocks?
Every four years the incoming president of either party is given a brief honeymoon period to get his feet planted on the ground. With many Americans out of work and having hundreds of thousands of homes facing foreclosure, 401K’s now 201k’s, how long will the honeymoon last for president Obama? 100 days, one year or more?
This could be a sign, that the crooks of Wall Street are packing it in and running for the border.
As president lets hope he orders the border guards to stop and check all of the high brow $500 suits for illegal capital fight.
Cook.
Now I get it. I saw all these New Yorkers in the Cayman Islands when we were there a few months ago
So I guess any transfers of money outside the states would be by bank wires. And they do not wear $500 suits. They generally travel in blue jeans not to draw attention to themselves.
With all the money being printed for the bailouts, inflation will skyrocket and as corporations can raise prices quicker than wages, stocks are the best protection – not CDs, bonds, land or homes.
How was the volume? Just because no one was buying does not mean there are no deals out there.
We are in the middle of a terrible recession/depression – you’re going to see more of this until people get back to work and start making contributions back into their retirement funds.
I think the key for investors will be how soon Obama can restore confidence. Like it or not the market, like commerce, is lubricated with rose colored glasses.
I guess it would be ok to gamble on stocks if you have an exit strategy to sell and actually get some gains. I do not trust the market at all and would rather have a rental home to help fund my retirement than rely on stocks.
Larry,
I hate to be brash, but you’re an idiot.
Here’s why the market is off today. Hint – it’s all banks.
Citigroup (C) off 20%
BoF (BAC) off 29%
JPMorgan (JPM) off 21%
Goldman Sachs (GS) off 19%
Wells Fargo (WFC) off 24%
Morgan Stanley (MS) off 16%
Why are these banks off so much? Because the shareholders figured out that they are much worse off then they assumed and they are all more than likely going to be NATIONALIZED.
Here’s a nickel tour of what England is going through. They were behind the curve for a while, but now they are now decidely ahead.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/01/mps-urge-nationalization-of-royal-bank.html
Facts are facts, a 12,000 investment in the DOW one year ago is worth less than 8,000 or a 1/3 drop, and to think, two years ago the DOW was at 12,500, But there are still people who will say that the DOW only goes up and never down. What is that old saying? What ever goes down must come back up? 3 years ago 10,600. Oh my 10,400 4 yrs ago, 10,500 5 years ago. Over 5 years and one of the basic measurements used by investment bankers has not made a profit. And that is a long term measurement.
2003 @8,000 2002 @10,400 2001 @9,800 2000 @10,900 1999 @9,700 1998 @8,700 1997 @6,500
You need to go back 12 years to measure a gain. And that gain works out to under 2 percent per year over 12 years. I think even bank passbook interest was more than that.
Of course there was paper gains from 97 to 98 to 99 to 2000, But over the long run, we now know those were fake.
I think one of the biggest mistakes the government made was letting banks and insurance companies get into the same business as the investment broker houses.
No_vaseline.
I don’t give a hoot for the individual names of those who drag the market down. The bottom line is that the DOW was off over 330 points today.
I would not call that “chump change.”
Hopefully your money is not in the banks which you have listed. Are you hurting? Shoot the messenger appears to be your tactics in responding to my posts.
Sorry to be late but I just returned from an event with Art and numerous other local bloggers.
Cook.
I took our money out of the market many years ago
A sad commentary. For those close to or beyond retirement age who were in the market at the high you may never see a return to that prior ceiling.
Larry,
I’m hurt by the market more than the next guy (believe that or don’t) but at least I understand why instead of blaming Santa Clause, the Man in the Moon, Art, yourself, the New York Yankees, or President Obama.
You just hate for any reason – good or otherwise. If you’re serious about investing, I’d suggest hiring a professsional and putting it into a blind trust.
You should leave your blog and go to the IHB from time to time. Better still, Bloomberg and CNBC are excelent and free.
No_vaseline
Sorry you are among the millions who have been hurt by the current market. If there is any blame to go around I would start with the person you see in the mirror every day. It’s our responsibility to safeguard our assets. Please don’t read an imaginary opinion between the lines because there is nothing to be found in my post. I am not placing blame anywhere else. This report was simply a snapshot in time that coincided with the inauguration. Before sending this response it appears that the market has rebounded somewhat this morning. We all have free will and can make choices. In this case it’s “risk-reward” for those who choose to gamble with their investments.
In fact our investments, while not in the stock market, have also taken a hit and I accept that.
Thanks for the friendly advise but I have done OK.
True we have “free will and can make choices” but what about the integrity of our institutions? We are not a small agrarian economy, where one knows the local banker and can decide wether he is an honest and trustworthy businessman. Most americans have to rely on Government safeguards and regulations to insure the integrity of the banks and that the corporate books aren’t cooked. Unfortunately over the past few years, our government has let us down.
anon.
The word of the day is “oversight.”
Oversight? How about JAIL time for these modern day robber- barons and their enablers.
anon.
My use of the word “oversight” relates to the old expression of the wolf who guards the hen house.
“Oversight” should have been in place BEFORE the Wall Street white collar crimes were committed.
Larry,
The past and current corporate culture supported by the administration that just left is the problem.
In that scenario (corporate culture) the oversighters you want, watching the wolf that gaurds the chickens are wolves themselves.
The remedy is to change the culture.
The remedy then is having our President, with our support, change the culture causing the problem.
Art. Perhaps instead of bailing out the weak banks we should tell them to file for bankruptcy protection like any other corporations who get in over their heads.