Stocks fall; Dow down 300 points

[rodeodance]

Source: ap

Stocks fall; Dow down 300 points

By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer 14 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Wall Street fell sharply again Thursday after a French bank said it was freezing three funds that invested in U.S. subprime mortgages because it was unable to properly value their assets. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 300 points.


The announcement by BNP Paribas raised the specter of a widening impact of U.S. credit market problems. The idea that anyone — institutions, investors, companies, individuals — can't get money when they need it unnerved a stock market that has suffered through weeks of volatility triggered by concerns about available credit and bad subprime mortgages.

A move by the European Central Bank to provide more cash to money markets intensified Wall Street's angst. Although the bank's loan of more than $130 billion in overnight funds to banks at a low rate of 4 percent was intended to calm investors, Wall Street saw the step as confirmation of the credit markets' problems. It was the ECB's biggest injection ever.

The Federal Reserve added a larger-than-normal $24 billion in temporary reserves to the U.S. banking system.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070809/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street;_ylt=AtFRoBeiSFl77Gjo31tXmS.s0NUE

[PassingFair]

1. The whole world must pay for our fake economy!

Nothing will stop the rip-off.

[customerserviceguy]

7. The stock market

is nothing but a pump, filling the pockets of the rich with money from the middle and working class.

[HughMoran]

13. I'm not rich - lost 15% of net worth in 2 weeks

Money for kids college lost in a heartbeat, along with my retirement. :(

[fencesitter]

15. Welcome to the "ownership" society

Remember when only the rich, who could afford to gamble with their money, owned stocks? The rest of us used savings accounts, pensions and the occasional bond. Now, all our savings, for everything from retirement to college savings to "health" savings accounts, are directed to Wall Street. See? they won!

[HughMoran]

17. Yep

But who didn't want to get in on the action when it was a rich man's exclusive club?

Kind of a catch 22...

[ozymandius]

21. Except that now hedge funds are involved in the meltdown

the richest among us are getting hosed too. Hedge funds require any player to have at least $1 million liquid to get started. These people, too, are going broke.

[snappyturtle]

2. Federal Reserve....there you go! I think the Federal Reserve

should be re-named.....Money in the Hands of a Few.....or the MHF!

[Javaman]

4. I prefer GOPATM. nt

[superkia]

19. Federal reserve, hey thanks for the extra paper!

With our debt to China and the market jumping around, what would happen if the world started to question our actual wealth, would someone then have to look into how much gold ( money ) our country really has? Someone help me understand this Federal Reserve stuff, I know we had in the past loads of gold at Fort Knox but do we still have any or does the Federal Reserve bankers have control of it? I am curious how much our country worth is, say if there were a terrible market crash along with our debt to China. Do we physically have a huge financial worth or are we a country in debt to the Federal Reserve and their paper? I have no clue, help me understand.

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

20. William Greider wrote a book

called Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs The Country. I think it is still in print.
It is very long but worth the read if you are into this type of stuff.

[superkia]

23. Sure am, thank you!

[eridani]

28. Gold isn't worth any more than any other arbitrary store of value

We ought to be denominating money in kilocalories, IMO.

[EV_Ares]

3. Nothing To Worry About GW Says All Is Well

http://www.forbes.com/topstories/home/feeds/ap/2007/08/08/ap4001138.html

[Javaman]

5. More like close to 400 points.

funny how the market took it's dive the moment moron* opened his* mouth at the presser today.

the guy* is a fucking jonah.

[UpInArms]

6. Dow 13,270.68 down 387.18 (2.83%) eom

[CJCRANE]

12. The "Piehole Effect" n/t

[Demeter]

16. Get a Clue and Throw Him Overboard, Congress!

and his little attack doggies, too.

[ozymandius]

22. His spewage has a special place in our hearts at the Stock Market Watch.

His breath is like an anchor with lead tassels.

[JNelson6563]

25. Well spoken Ozy.

:toast:

Julie

[PassingFair]

8. Talking about manufacturing money to give to Fannie Mae

to bail out the "sub-prime" crisis.

Now Europe has to vomit fake money too,
just to keep up.

"The Federal Reserve added a larger-than-normal $24 billion in temporary reserves to the U.S. banking system."

They have COMPLETE CONTROL of the system.

[LanternWaste]

9. So we're talking a drop of approximately 700 points in two weeks, right?

So we're talking a drop of approximately 700 points in two weeks, right?

Isn't that somewhere along a drop of 15% over half a month? Is my math off? Isn't that a bit precipitous-- even for a volatile market?

[Zensea]

11. 5%

700 divided by 14000 = 5%, not 15%.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. So is the PPT gonna pull it out in the last 3 minutes

like they did the other day?

That manipulated last-minute rally was so transparent you could use it for window glass.

[Algorem]

14. 300 pt.s?That's it?

Ah think m'nuts have fallen more in this heat

[David Zephyr]

18. I pulled out of the market in May. It killed me to do it, but the signs were there.

After the Asian stock market dropped in the wild swing earlier this year and came back up, I never felt good about the equities market. Too much subprime mess, too much wild speculation (gambling) in China's stock markets, too much U.S. debt, too many Americans sucking cash out of their home...

So I pulled it all out (posted here that I'd done so) and sat back from May until today fretting that I might have been premature.

No longer.

I have all of my money.

The swings up and down are increasing almost to every other day. The absolute value of the swings is manic.

This doesn't look good.

At some point the Fed will have to lower rates which will really send the dollar even lower than it is now.

Welcome to the Bush Aftermath.

[slipslidingaway]

24. Nice move, congrats on your knowledge, discipline and guts.

:toast:

[high density]

26. Discipline?

Discipline would be plotting an appropriate asset allocation between bonds, equities, and cash, and then sticking with it through the ups and downs. To me that sort of approach makes a lot more sense then trying to time the market.

[slipslidingaway]

27. I believe the appropriate allocation between asset classes

changes over time and depends on individual needs, so longer term market timing and/or shift between classes may not be so bad. :shrug:

[A HERETIC I AM]

29. It ain't timING the market. It's time IN the market.

But hey, if a person can call the tops and the bottoms with confidence, more power to em.

[slipslidingaway]

30. Being long in a great bull market as we had from the early 80's

to 2000 was great. Watching one's pension fund lose money month after month while people on CNBC told investor's to stay in as they sold was not a good time to be long the market, especially for those getting close to retirement.

http://stockcharts.com/charts/historical/


I found this site useful back in 2000, maybe others will as well, the monthly articles are free.

http://contraryinvestor.com/moarchive2000/mo040400.htm


And I agree power to the people who have taken control of their own investments or hired a competent manager.