Another day, another huge decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Stocks tumbled yet again today as widespread panic over subprime mortgages, worries over retail sales and general unease about the future caused investors to shift their money into safe havens such as mattresses, refrigerators and crawlspaces in their homes. Pleas for calm by pundits such as Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) strategist Tobias Levkovich, who today urged investors "not to succumb to an emotional desire to sell before things get worse" were ignored.
What's remarkable about this more than 100 point sell-off is that it came after the Fed pumped $24 billion in temporary funds into the economy. Central banks in Japan, Europe and Australia also responded to the crisis, according to Bloomberg News.
Still, the market isn't stable and bad signs abound.
Countrywide Financial Corp. (NYSE: CFC) scared the bejesus out of the market yesterday with its warning of "unprecedented disruptions." France's BNP Paribas froze three investment funds that until fairly recently were worth about $2.2 billion because of losses in the U.S. mortgage market and apartment builder Tarragon Corp (NASDAQ: TARR) raised doubts about its ability to continue in business, according to the Wall Street Journal.
About the only good news came from the Fed's declaration this morning that it would provide liquidity "as necessary" to bolster the market.
Smart investors know that it's always darkest before the dawn, but that doesn't make times any less dark.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-10-2007 @ 10:46AM
Warren said...
Percentage wise, these drops are perfectly reasonable. I wish people would relax.
8-10-2007 @ 11:46AM
Jay Freese said...
Given that mortgage rates are at historic lows, there is only one reason for a mrtgage crisis. That is historic fraud. Eventually CFC will be forced into bakruptcy. My advise is sell, sell, sell.
8-10-2007 @ 2:02PM
Teri said...
I agree with Warren, people need to relax.
8-10-2007 @ 2:24PM
Steve-o said...
Jay Freese,
Your comment is an over-simplification and indicates you have no understanding of mortgages, interest rates, or the stock market.
8-10-2007 @ 2:35PM
Tamesha said...
When you begin to understand that Allen Greenspan lowered the interest so low that the average American household could afford to actually purchase a home. Once the purchases were made, he raised the interest rate several times. Most of the mortgages that were purchased were adjustable and over the yrs increased the interest rate up to highs as much as 12 and 13%. This caused the mortgages to go from affordable to extremely unaffordable. People are now losing their homes and current homeowners that refinanced are being causght in the numbers crunch as well. They lowered the interest rate to make the economic numbers look good on paper. If you have been following the trend, once the interest went low, the prices of homes tripled. This is a real proble for our economy, not to mention that not only are they paying a mortgage they never expected to skyrocket, gas increases have cause every other product on the market to increase, while wags have stayed the same. Please be informed before you make comments about relaxing.
8-10-2007 @ 3:03PM
Adele Roberson said...
Today's news: Stocks are trying to recover after a second injection of $16 billion from the Federal Reserve to try to alleviate liquidity concerns.
Wouldn't it be nice if when you got your tail in a financial crack the Federal Reserve would move to immediately assist you???
Back to the video we saw.. One corporation assisting another Corporation.
And the investors and the people that took out the fradulent loans ... well. F - - - them. Relax.. says the one that has absolutely no idea what the hell is going on.
How funny! Do you all now where all this money is coming from? It is being printing by the Federal Reserve.
To the person that says "relax" are you going to get some of this money?
Ha Ha
8-10-2007 @ 3:10PM
adele roberson said...
You can blame the government, you can blame the republicans and the democrats....you can blame the whole damn world. But, what is really wrong with this country is that eighty percent of the inhabitants do not have a clue.
Now... as one of the clueless said RELAX..
8-10-2007 @ 5:00PM
ken lowry said...
please define what is or what makes a "hedge fund"
8-11-2007 @ 12:01PM
Joanne said...
Is it possible to force lenders to revert back to the original mortgage agreement for a 1-3 year period? The low entry rate loans were a sham for most home buyers. They were lulled into a teaser rate and had NO IDEA what would occur down the road. Well, we are now "down the road", and all those slick mortgage lenders should have to do something to stablize this mess!!
8-11-2007 @ 11:54PM
robert greenwood said...
The injection of liquidity into the world economy Thursday and Friday is unprecented, both in terms of the amount of money and the number of central banks acting in unison. Money is what makes the stock markets run. When this money finds its way into equities, and it will, the stock markets around the world will recover. I'm not saying this is a buying opportunity. But rather to watch and see what happens this coming week.
8-12-2007 @ 3:35PM
kirk said...
This situation is just another confirmation of the sad situation that the large majority of us are being manipulated by large powerful companies in the US financial world. Their greed to obtain 'other peoples money" was once confined to the USA, now its being sold to other innocents world wide. The Fed and others are just part of the program. Today, we are experiencing "rumor mongers" at international levels.
This is truly eye opening, lets see what schemes are brewing for next week. I have to stay calm and hope that some knight in shining armour will save the day.
8-16-2007 @ 12:10PM
Bert Nissel said...
U.S. must ban food, drugs from China
By Alan Tonelson
WASHINGTON -- China itself has just made the strongest possible argument for immediate, sweeping U.S. action to protect American consumers from its dangerous food and drug products.
A government spokesman made this surprisingly candid admission: "Our work with food and drug supervision is just beginning. The foundation of the work is still weak, and the trend is not promising."
The policy implications are unmistakable: First, any Chinese goods made for direct or indirect human consumption must be considered a priori hazardous. Second, whatever Beijing's intentions, China's regulatory woes will persist for decades. Thus Washington's continued dithering increasingly invites epidemics and deaths.
The only realistic alternative is mandatory, detailed country-of-origin labeling for all food and drug products sold in America, including their ingredients.To avoid discriminating against China, this system would be extended as quickly as possible to cover other trade partners with demonstrably poor regulatory systems.
8-17-2007 @ 8:21AM
Lisa said...
I'm not "relaxing", but I'm keeping calm about this downturn. I don't think it's done yet, but I also expected a downturn about now. I've been expecting a downturn for about 6 months, to be honest. It's almost a relief now that it's here.
No, I didn't sell anything. I simply started adjusting my purchases to reflect the coming downturn a couple of months before the year began. I started buying more bond funds and putting more into cash (but not that much more) while cutting back just a little on stock purchases.
Somewhere I latched on to the idea that an investor's worst enemy is emotion, and fear is worst of all. So I make my plans, and I stick to them.