Get ready for a frantic, freaky Friday in the stock market


One of my relatives works in construction. Bags of material needed to make concrete have lately been piling up at his job site because no one is mixing the stuff. That's yet another sign of the slowing economy and the impact it's having on people. Today's expected dramatic selloff in the stock market is another.

Investors used to gasp when they saw a triple-digit decline in the Dow Jones industrial Average. Now, as one of my friends recently noted, it's "another day at the office." It's not that people like huge declines; they have grown accustomed to living in a constant state of dread.

Today is no exception. Trading, which was limited in the pre-market, is going to be awful. Call it "Frantic Friday" or "Freaky Friday." Fear is ruling the day again. Investors are not acting rational. Blah, Blah, Blah. You have heard it all before. The only questions is why the world appears to be coming to an end today.

My colleague Peter Cohan points out that markets in Asia and Europe have been tanking. Even Canada, which largely avoided the subprime crisis, is guaranteeing up to C$218 billion in bank debt to match the bailouts offered by other countries. Remember, Canada's banks were recently recognized as being the most stable in the world. This underscores the nervousness of investors.


The U.K. economy shrank for the first time in 16 years. Yields on the 30 Year Treasury Bonds are their lowest since they began selling them in 1977. Corporate earnings are dismal and their outlooks are lackluster at best. Even a cut in oil production by OPEC does not appear to be affecting the market because demand is weak amid the economic slowdown. Even the PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC) acquisition of National City Corp (NYSE: NCC) won't do much to calm investors' fears.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan yesterday called this a "once in a century credit tsunami" during his testimony before Congress when he tried to convince people -- unsuccessfully in my view -- that he bore no responsibility for our current economic mess.

Some pundits are urging investors to buy shares, calling today's market action a "once in a lifetime" buying opportunity. The problem is most investors probably have gone through a lifetime supply of antacid and probably could not stand more excitement.

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IndexesChangePrice
DJIA0.0012,883.95
NASDAQ0.002,915.86
S&P 5000.001,349.96

Last updated: February 09, 2012: 09:01 AM

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