Dow futures briefly drop 150 on weak data, Europe jitters

cnbc ^ | 10-15-2014

[Citizen Zed]

Futures lost about 1 percent as investors were unnerved by word of another Ebola case diagnosed in the U.S., along with a more than 7 percent drop in the Greek markets that drove a flight to safety in German bunds, with the 10-year bond trading below 0.8 percent.

Meanwhile, German Bund yields fell to a record low on Wednesday as worries over a deteriorating euro zone economic outlook, fed by another credit rating blow for France, and "free falling" inflation expectations dominated the market.

Elsewhere, Asian markets erased early gains to trade mixed midday, as Chinese inflation data slowed more than expected to 1.6 percent in September, adding to concerns over a faltering global economic recovery. In Europe, meanwhile, markets traded slightly lower on the back of gloomy euro zone data on Tuesday.

[Starboard]

I can feel it too! LOL

[kjam22]

My 77 year old mother who spends 90% of her life at home called me last night. She was frightened about Ebola. (thanks fox news). She got a little better and a little more sanity when I told her our country has around 300 million people in it. And 2 of them have Ebola that we know of. Sometimes we gotta get a grip.

[kjam22]

Something about Ebola I've been wondering..... So the Duncan guy goes to the hospital with 103 degree fever. They send him home. So he made contact with at least one hospital health care worker. They took his temperature. Probably looked in his throat? Probably took blood pressure. Some sort of a basic exam. He filled out paperwork of some sort and people processed that. Used a pen in the ER to write his info on the paper.

Yet, no one from that event is sick? How does that happen?

[Starboard]

While your mother has little to fear because of her isolation, most of population lives, works and commutes in or near high population density areas. Given the potential for exponential exposure, it’s not unreasonable or irrational to be concerned about the spread of this disease. Panic no, but prudent concern definitely.

Unfortunately the government has not handled this threat in a consistent or competent manner. At the very least, the communications aspect has been less than professional. This in itself causes fear unnecessarily. IMO it could all be managed a lot better and the country could be far more reassured than it is today.

[SVTCobra03]

I agree. And have you noticed the FR ebola deniers coming out of the woodwork lately.

[Starboard]

One thing that is particularly disturbing is that knowledgeable medical people who should know better (i.e., the NBC reporter and the ER nurse in Dallas) went about their business in spite of knowing they had been exposed. So it looks like there’s another dimension to the Ebola problem; people are not inclined to abide by quarantine rules.

Consider the implications of that if you will.