| Citigroup, GM Slide; Xerox Rises
As Citigroup and General Motors helped push the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its lowest close since mid-August, investors turned to EchoStar Communications amid the prospect of the satellite-TV provider's being purchased. "Goldman predicting additional steep subprime write-downs for big U.S. brokerages, including Citigroup, and Chinese officials telling their domestic banks to freeze lending through year end raised deep concerns about the sustainability of global growth," said Robbert van Batenburg, head of trading research at Louis Capital Markets. "As a result, there was broad selling, with financials bearing much of the brunt. But commodities and industrials that had been holding ... .
Bank stocks pull bourse down
AUSTRALIA'S banking stocks continued to drag on the local market as a return to Wall Street-led anxiety peeled away gains made in this week's bounce. The Australian market tumbled by more than 2 per cent within the first half hour of trade yesterday. Despite regaining some ground in the session, the losses were seen in all sectors except resources and energy. The S&P/ASX 200 index ended 78.2 points lower at 5606.6, down 1.4 per cent. The All Ordinaries closed 68.4 down at 5679.8. This came after Thursday's rally, which pushed the benchmark indices 2.6 per cent higher. Yesterday's performance followed another negative session on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 175 points, or 1.4 per cent. This was triggered by unsettling comments by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, who warned of slower economic growth and more credit-related write-downs.
McCain 40%, Romney 32%, Huckabee 22%
Given that these states leaned blue, what is clear that Mitt Romney battled to within a single digit deficit nationally of the frontrunner, making this the closest nomination contest since 1976. For a campaign that started at 3% in the polls, it came a long way. But it's confronting a harsh reality tonight, with an inability to break out of the low thirties in any primary state Mitt Romney has not called home. The "big winner" of the night finished third, racking up delegates thanks to his concentrated strength in the South. On the Democratic side, Clinton and Obama were within 25,000 votes of one another by my count. The NBC delegate tracker had it at 841 for Obama, 837 for Clinton. We now move on to the Maryland and DC contests, which lean Obama, and the Virginia primary, which is open to Republicans and independents.
Fed Chair says 'sluggish' and the market listens
It was back to the daily grind lower on Wall Street. Following a few days of gains, sellers were back to the markets. Bernanke's comments weren't welcomed by investors. The Fed chair believes that economic growth will be “sluggish" but is expected to improve later in the year. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't we already know this? Most of the media is blaming the stock market declines on these statements, but I argue that investors were actually more disappointed in the fact that Bernanke doesn't think that the economy is a complete disaster. Had that been the case, the odds of an immediate rate cut would have gone up and stocks would have likely followed. Also regurgitating information that we were already privy of, the Fed chair noted that the credit crisis and the slumping housing market have both weighed on the economy.
Sensex dips 612 points
Indian markets opened positive and after first two hours of volatile trade came crashing down and the benchmark BSE Sensex closed the day with 612.56 points loss at 17,526.93. The broader 50 share Nifty closed 3.56 per cent lower at 5133.25 amidst talk of a large chunk of selling in the Nifty Futures. Though domestic market sentiment could have been affected by the warning that India would grow slower at the rate of 8.7 in 2007/2008, market participants said it was basket selling in frontline, large cap stocks that triggered the crash. The situation in the primary markets too worsened as Wockhardt Hospitals had received only 20 per cent of subscriptions to its IPO by 5 pm on the closing day, even after cutting its issue price once and extending the subscription date. The provisional figures from the National Stock Exchange indicated foreign institutional investors were net sellers to the extent of 860 crore while domestic funds net buyers of Rs 230 crore.
Evolution of economy will tell whether Fed overreacted
Monday was a holiday in the US – Martin Luther King day. But Ben Bernanke was in the chairman's office at the Federal Reserve, working through the holiday as he often does. On his desk his Bloomberg, Reuters and Dow Jones terminals flashed red as selling in global equity markets spread from Asia to Europe. The US markets were closed, but US stock futures were still trading, and they too started to plunge. When US markets reopened on Tuesday it looked as though there would be a bloodbath. .
Speculators are facing a financial judgment day, and a great ...
Following the Great Depression of the 1930s, many people were fearful of any kind of debt. Many lost everything they had that wasnt paid for free and clear; debt was genuinely something to fear. For decades afterward, debt was viewed as a tool of the devil, to be shied away from at all cost. The generation of people who grew up in this era lived frugally, focusing more on saving than on spending. If they did go into debt, it was to purchase a home in which to live. .
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