PBS NEWSHOUR: What's behind the stock market's sudden turmoil?

[Lady Freedom Returns]

Published on Oct 11, 2014
After a long climb, the stock market suffered its biggest losses this past week in two and a half years. To help us understand the forces behind the sudden drop? For more, we are joined via Skype from Richmond, Virginia, by Roben Farzad.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/whats-behind-stock-markets-sudden-turmoil/

[elleng]

1. from Robert Reich

In case you hadn’t noticed, the U.S. stock market is in the midst of a “correction,” which is a polite word for instability and fear. Why? Partly because foreign markets are fragile, and the Fed hasn’t given a clear signal of when it will start raising interest rates. But the biggest reason is U.S. corporations are running out of ways to raise stock prices in a “recovery” that hasn’t given most Americans enough purchasing power to increase sales.

So companies have been buying back their own stock, issuing dividends, and pumping up profits by cutting jobs and wages. But these temporary fixes are about exhausted. Absent a strong and growing middle class, the stock market is imperiled.

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich

[a kennedy]

3. So my retirement fund which I live off of is tanking like a rock....

Time to start looking for employment....

[elleng]

4. Or hold your breath and wait

for a new, real recovery.

[yeoman6987]

6. Time to buy....well not yet.

Hopefully it goes down another 18 percent. It needs this correction. A lot of small investors like myself are sitting on money in the savings account doing nothing because the stock market is too high to buy. This is the start of good things to come. Don't sell for goodness sake. That would be the worst thing to do. Just take the absolute minimum you need to survive and let the process happen. The only ones who lost money during the recession are those that got scared and sold. They are kicking themselves today for it.

[RKP5637]

2. Thanks for posting this ! n/t

[DontTreadOnMe]

5. Corporations have run out of accounting tricks...

so now they face the reality that the middle calls doesn't have any "consumer" power anymore... the first ones to feel the heat are the companies. Large companies can go under in six month if sales tank, especially retail stores. Take a look at the furniture industry.. in your area, has just about EVERY furniture store gone out of business?

[Yavin4]

7. It's tanking because of the Fed. The Fed raises rates right before a non-incumbent...

presidential election. They did it in 1999-2000, and they did it again in 2006-2007. They will do it again next spring/summer, and the markets are selling off in anticipation of that. There's volatility because no one is 100% sure of the timing.

My advice is buy a little on these sell-offs and keep most of your money on the sidelines. Then, when the rates do start going up, jump into the market as it will tank. When the new president is elected, rates will come back down and the markets will go back up.