See how much the Markets love the Debt Deal

[Charles_Main]

4% Decline in 1 day, losses in the last 9 out of 10 days of Trading. The Market is predicting the future here, and they do not like what they see. The Debt Deal showed them one thing clearly. That there is no political will to actually do something about our problems. Cooperate America is not enjoying record profits but not hiring just to be assholes. They are fucking scared shitless. They see a shit storm coming because of our lack of Fiscal Discipline and New Regulations and Obama Care mandates. They see the writing on the wall.

I am sure liberals in here will simply say they are being greedy, But they will be wrong. American Business and investors are scared out of their minds like nobody has been in the better part of 100 years, For good reason.

Nobody, not the Republicans, not the Democrats seems to understand what we are facing. They all seem to think we can dick around and take our time, and punt most of the real issues down the road. They just do not Understand what the markets clearly do. We are in a car speeding toward a cliff, we can't afford to say will start hitting the breaks soon, We need to put the petal to the floor right now and hope to hell the anti lock breaks work.

I for one was part of the sell off today. Converting the tiny amount of investments I have into more gold. Anyone in the markets still right now is riding the titanic right to the bottom.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

America's number one problem is complacency and distraction.
Number two problem is blind partisanship...always pointing the finger the other direction.
Number three is selfishness, always willing to consent to sacrifices...as long as it is someone else.
And finally number four is a lack of patriotism. And what is patriotism? Being proud of belonging to something and looking out for its interest - something VERY, VERY few Americans do any more.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - if dey don't fix the economy, ever'thin' gonna go to hell inna handbasket...

Economy, not debt rating, will send markets lower
Aug 7,`11 - U.S. investors will have their first chance Monday to react to Standard & Poor's decision to strip the U.S. government of its top credit rating. But the bigger issues facing Wall Street and stock markets worldwide remain debt-ridden countries in Europe and concerns that the global economy is weakening.

Friday's first-ever downgrade of U.S. long-term debt from AAA to AA+ wasn't unexpected and may have little impact on interest rates. But it's the kind of news that stock markets don't need when investors are already nervous. Even before the downgrade, the Dow Jones industrial average last week fell nearly 700 points, or 6 percent. Investors were worried because economic signals in the U.S. and overseas were pointing toward trouble:

-On July 29, the government dramatically lowered its estimate of how much the economy grew during the first quarter. It had said the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent, but revised that number down to 0.4 percent. Second-quarter growth was also weak, a 1.3 percent rate.

-European officials are trying to help Italy - the world's eighth-largest economy - avoid the kind of bailouts that Greece, Portugal and Spain were forced to accept to prevent them from defaulting on their debt. And those bailouts haven't solved all the problems in those countries.

-The first reports on the economy during the third quarter have been mixed. Manufacturing, which helped pull the economy out of the recession, fell to its weakest level since July 2009 - the month after the recession officially ended. The Labor Department said 117,000 jobs were created last month. But that came after 99,000 jobs were created in May and June combined - and 250,000 new jobs are needed each month to reduce unemployment.

As a result, financial analysts interviewed Sunday said they expect markets to be volatile this week - and beyond. "We are in unchartered territory and, therefore, should all brace for volatility over a number of days if not weeks," said Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and co-chief investment officer of the bond mutual fund company PIMCO.

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S&P: Further US Credit Downgrade Possible
August 07, 2011 - The U.S. government’s credit rating could be downgraded even further, according to the rating agency that removed the United States from a list of top-tier creditworthy nations.

Standard and Poor’s judgement

Days after Standard and Poor’s made headlines across the globe by saying the United States no longer merits its highest AAA credit rating, the firm’s managing director, John Chambers, says another downgrade cannot be ruled out if America’s worsening fiscal imbalances do not improve. “If the fiscal position of the United States deteriorates further, or if the political gridlock becomes more entrenched, then that could lead to [another] downgrade. Speaking on ABC’s This Week television program, Chambers put the chances of a further credit downgrade at one-in-three. But he also noted that it is possible for nations to regain their AAA rating if they demonstrate fiscal restraint over a period of years.

US & World's markets

The possibility of another downgrade can hardly reassure nervous stockholders. Even before Standard and Poor’s announcement late Friday, investors showed their willingness to sell off stocks. U.S. and other markets suffered some of their steepest losses of the year last week. But market jitters stem from more than U.S. fiscal woes, according to the head of Standard and Poor’s government debt rating unit, David Beers. “A lot of what is worrying the markets is the unfolding story in Europe, and also a perception from a global economic perspective that the world economy may be slowing down," he said. "So I think the markets are reacting to a lot of factors, not just what S&P [Standard and Poor’s] said on Friday.”

US debt

The U.S. national debt stands at $14.3 trillion, the cumulative total of annual federal deficits. Last week, President Barack Obama signed a bill to raise the federal borrowing limit and shave more than $2 trillion from the deficit over ten years. In the months leading up to the agreement, Democratic and Republican negotiators were unable to agree on a more ambitious, $4 trillion deficit-reduction goal, with Republicans adamantly opposed to any tax hikes and Democrats reluctant to force savings from costly programs that provide income and health care for retirees.

Partisan finger-pointing has been rampant in Washington in recent months, and continued after the S&P downgrade. Appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation program, top Obama political strategist David Axelrod placed the blame on the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party. Axelrod noted that some Tea Party members of Congress refused to support any deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, even if doing so risked a U.S. default on its debt obligations.

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[waltky]

Granny says the other shoe fallin'...

World markets in big sell-off
September 22, 2011: The world's financial markets took a beating Thursday as investors saw signs of economic weakness around the globe.

Contributing to the losses were the Federal Reserve's statement on Wednesday warning of a "significant" downside risk to the U.S. economy, as well as reports from global bank HSBC showing contraction in the Chinese and eurozone manufacturing sectors. In Asia, the major indexes all finished more than 2% lower. Tokyo's Nikkei (N225) index dropped 2.1%. Shanghai's SE Composite Index (SHCOMP) lost 2.8%. And Hong Kong's Hang Seng (HSI) index suffered a 4.9% drubbing. "We are seeing more weakness in the Asian session overnight," said Deutsche Bank analyst Colin Tan in a research note. "Further indication of contraction in China's manufacturing sector is clearly not helping."

European markets also got hammered. Britain's FTSE 100 (UKX) and Germany's DAX (DAX) dropped more than 4% while France's CAC 40 (CAC40) dropped more than 5%. Financial stocks were among the hardest hit, with shares of Societe Generale down 7%. Credit Agricole fell 7%, while BNP Paribas shed 5%. The selling spilled over to currencies, with the euro sliding more than 1% against the U.S. dollar to $1.34. U.S. markets, which were hard-hit Wednesday after the Fed statement, dropped more at Thursday's open. S&P (SPX), Nasdaq-100 (COMP) and Dow Jones (INDU) stocks were all down more than 3%.

Shares of U.S. bank stocks were taking an early beating, with JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs down 4%. Wells Fargo sunk 2% while Bank of America and shares of Citigroup tumbled 3%. The Federal Reserve's latest assessment of the economy spooked U.S. investors. Though the central bank has been warning of slower growth for months, its signal of "significant downside risks to the economic outlook, including strains in global financial markets" added to the pessimistic forecast. The outlook came as the Fed announced an effort to boost the economy by shifting $400 billion in its portfolio to long-term Treasuries from short-term Treasuries.

Back in Europe, the Eurozone PMI's Composite Output Index slipped below the benchmark of 50 that signals contraction for the first time since July 2009, the HSBC reported. "Output growth slowed to near-stagnation in both Germany and France, showing the weakest rates of expansion since their recoveries began over two years ago," read the report. HSBC also reported that China's Purchasing Managers' Index continued to stagger along below the 50 benchmark for the third straight month.

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U.S. stocks set to slide after global sell-off
September 22, 2011: U.S. stocks were headed for a sharply lower open Thursday, tracking steep declines in world markets, as nervous investors worried about the global economy following the Federal Reserve's gloomy outlook.

Adding further pressure in the early going was a report showing a greater number of people filed for unemployment benefits in the latest week. Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were down about 2% ahead of the opening bell. Stock futures indicate the possible direction of the markets when they open at 9:30 a.m. ET. U.S. stocks ended sharply lower Wednesday, after the Fed said it will shift $400 billion from short-term Treasuries into long-term Treasuries in an effort to boost lending and spur the economy.

Though the so-called Operation Twist was what investors had been anticipating, meeting expectations with the bare minimum came up short of pleasing them. "These measures can't make the economy worse, but neither, we think, will they make things much better," said High Frequency Economics chief U.S. economist Ian Shepherdson in a note to clients. As investors fled the global stock markets, they rushed for safer havens, driving up the price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury. That pushed the yield down to fresh record low below 1.762% from 1.88% late Wednesday.

The Fed's latest assessment of the economy also spooked investors. Though the central bank has been warning of slower growth for months, its signal of "significant downside risks to the economic outlook, including strains in global financial markets" added to the pessimistic forecast. A preliminary reading on China's manufacturing activity fell in September, according to HSBC's survey, renewing concerns of a sudden slowdown in the world's second-largest economy. A separate report showed that manufacturing in the eurozone contracted for the first time in over two years, according to London-based Markit Economics. The reading "provides the strongest sign yet that the region is on the cusp of recession," said Capital Economics European economist Ben May in a research note.

World markets: