A Volatile Final Minute in a Good Year for Stocks

[TomCADem]

Source: NY Times

After one of the most volatile decades in Wall Street history, Thursday brought a glimmer of hope, as optimism over the strength of economic recovery helped keep markets near their highest levels in 14 months.

When the final bell of 2009 sounded, shares were down substantially for the day, falling sharply in the final minutes. But that did little to damp enthusiasm over what has been a stunning comeback year for the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 18.8 percent in 2009, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 23.5 percent, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq was up 43.9 percent — the largest gains since 2003.

Still, stocks remain sharply below their pre-recession records; the Dow, for instance, is about 26 percent lower than its October 2007 highs.

Light trading exacerbated Thursday’s declines. The Dow ended the day down 120.46 points, or 1.14 percent, at 10,428.05 points. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 11.32 points, 1 percent, to 1,115.10 points, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq was down 22.13 points, 0.97 percent, at 2,269.15 points.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/business/01markets.html

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I remember when Fox News and CNBC were running scrawls about Obama Bear market in the first few months of his Presidency blaming the crashing markets on him. So, given the fairness and balance in the media, I have yet to see a single news story about Obama Bull market.

[sharesunited]

1. The desire to window dress portfolios has kept stocks rallying. Highly self validating.

Recognition of the need for a correction, overdue by at least a month, sent stocks down at the end of the final session of the year.

We need to go down some more and build a better base in January. This recent rise rests upon a foundation of swiss cheese.

[Frank Booth]

5. The market's been in need of a correction since April.

Stupid me, lost a lot of money waiting for the correction to occur so I could invest more at the bottom.

I bet we'll see a 300-500 point correction in the Dow in the next month or so, but nothing major.

[sharesunited]

6. Back down to Dow 10,000 and S&P 1070 should be enough. But over correction is a real possibility.

Waiting too long can take a more painful toll when the reckoning does occur.

[FreakinDJ]

9. Love all the "Doom and Gloom" economic Bull Shit

My 401K has grown over 30% with "Modest-Medium Risk"

Keep it up guys - at this rate I'll be able to retire soon

[natrat]

11. your down for the decade and 30+% down from the high,dollar down 25% for decade

[regnaD kciN]

2. No, but...

I remember when Fox News and CNBC were running scrawls about Obama Bear market in the first few months of his Presidency blaming the crashing markets on him. So, given the fairness and balance in the media, I have yet to see a single news story about Obama Bull market.

...you've seen plenty of articles and posts on liberal websites about how the rise in stock prices only proves that Obama is merely another Wall Street tool, and a traitor to all that is progressive. :eyes:

[TomCADem]

3. True, I Do Recall On DU Many Folks Using The Drop In Stock Prices

To attack the Obama administration's response to the banking crisis.

[liberation]

7. Stock markets are arbitrary speculative metrics with little correlation with anything

We have based our whole economic system, on a mechanism which is nothing more than a slight upgrade to the reading of tea leaves of millennia past. And frankly I always get a hoot about stock people. Everyone plays it off by doing all the gesturing and professional "hand waving" but I am sure, that a deeper level most stock people are simply winking at each other because they know is just a con... and the whole point is to not be the last retard left holding the hot potato when the music stops.

So yeah, that is why anyone can take a reading from the market and twist it to support whatever point of view or agenda they are peddling: stock going up is good/bad for obama because whatever.... stocks going down is good/bad for obama because some other arbitrary whatever. So it is just a representation of the sheer dishonesty that modern economics is based upon. Frankly, as a scientist I have learned to be weary of a discipline which had to make up their own knock off Nobel "memorial" awards (little known fact, there is no Nobel price for economics, there is a "Nobel memorial award" knock off piece of paper offered by a banking syndicate in Sweden and which is the penultimate in dishonest marketing) in order to present itself as a science (which is not).


Frankly, snake oil sellers in the wild West had a far more reasonable value proposition... at least their products had a physical implementation. So you at least got a bottle out of the rip off...

In other words, I can't help but laugh when I see posts with arbitrary numbers pulled out of someone's ass, and try to spin what amounts to nothing bu hot air... into something more "reputable" by hiding behind nonsensical buzzwords while assuming the anthropomorphism of an abstract entity such as "the market" (that is the kicker to me... LOL)

[TomCADem]

10. Tell That To Folks In February and March...

Who were using the drop in stock prices to attack President Obama and Timothy Geithner.

The fact of the matter is that while you may be right, the spin given by the media about an "Obama Bear Market" says more about the media, then it does about the actual causes for the rise and drop in stock prices.

[TexasObserver]

4. It was a one percent dip at year's end and not a big deal at all.

It was entirely predictable. People nailing down profits at the end of the calendar year.

The DOW has been hovering around 10,400 for weeks.

Nothing about the final trading day was a surprise.

Don't be surprised to see it dip below 10,000 in the first quarter of 2010, however. While it will likely resurge by springtime, I think we'll see the DOW go below 10,000 in January.

[GeorgeGist]

8. yeah, Wall Street ...

fuck, Main Street!