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Stocks head for big losses NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks headed for a big drop at Wednesday's open after Italy's key bond rate rose above a critical 7% level -- a sign that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's pledge to step down failed to calm world markets. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures fell more than 2%. Stock futures indicate the possible direction of the markets when they open at 9:30 a.m. ET. Berlusconi's departure could come as late as the first week of December, after a final vote on the budget. And...

FTSE, DAX, CAC to Open Sharply Lower Published: Tuesday, 4 Oct 2011 | 1:35 AM ET By: Antonya Allen Assistant Editor, CNBC.com European stocks were expected to open lower on Tuesday after falling to their lowest close in a week on Monday with banking stocks among the biggest losers following an admission by Greece that it will miss its deficit targets for the year. The FTSE [.FTSE 4910.32 -165.18 (-3.25%) ] is called 100 points lower, while Germany's DAX [.GDAXI 5181.08 -195.62 (-3.64%) ] is expected to open 114 lower and the CAC 40 [CAC40 2839.20 -87.63 (-2.99%) ]in France...

DJI 10,808.87 Down -315.97 -2.84%

I am 26 and recently graduated from school. For the past almost 2 years I have been running a 401k with the tiny percentage of money I can afford to put into it with the full expectation that Social Security won't be around when I'm eligible for it, regardless of the fact I've had to pay into it. I find it really scary how many people I know around my age that aren't saving at all. At first my work only offered a regular 401 so I put in slightly above the % for employer matching. Then they offerred a...

Sept. 6, 2011, 9:37 a.m. EDT U.S. stocks open sharply lower; Rule 48 invoked By Kate Gibson NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - U.S. stocks fell sharply Tuesday as worries about European debt and the U.S. economy intensified. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -2.31% fell 275.26 points to 10,965.00. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index SPX -2.51% shed 29.60 points to 1,144.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP -2.18% declined 56.61 points to 2,423.72. /snip Markets invoked Rule 48 for the open, lifting a requirement calling for price indications that help determine the floor price at the start to smooth trade.

Tuesday's Market Preview Is Not Pretty: El-Erian Published: Monday, 5 Sep 2011 | 1:51 PM ET By: Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and Co-CIO, Pimco To state the obvious, it is shaping up to be a difficult return for U.S. markets after the Labor Day break as European stock plunge and the European Central Bank (ECB) loses some of the control it has been exercising on the Euro-zone's sovereign bond market. The best way to understand what is going on is through the following simplified sequence: banks-sovereigns-policies. Specifically: · Banks stocks led the debacle on European bourses Monday, with drops of some...

Asian markets slammed in global selloff By Yoshikazu Tsuno | AFP – 1 hour 17 minutes ago. Asian stock markets early Friday caught a global selling fever after new warnings of world recession coupled with fears that rapid-fire growth in China is set to slow down. Investors in Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney picked up on the mounting anxiety evident in the United States and Europe, where fresh carnage ripped across the markets on Thursday. "The bears returned aggressively overnight as very disappointing US economic data and fears over the stability of European banks had traders reaching for the sell button,"...

Stop the presses. Barely did we have time to report that European regulators failed to impose a coordinated short selling ban, that Bloomberg reports that the countries most impact by the market plunge are about to impose standalone short-selling bans. These are Belgium, Italy, Spain and France. In other words, it really is on and the 2008 Lehman PTSD flashbacks may now resume. Until we get a headline that says it isn't. The rescue of the Borsa Italian is now more schizophrenic than that of Greece. As a reminder, in the previous post the FT quoted Abraham Lioui, a professor...

Stocks finished near session lows in choppy trading Wednesday, with the Dow and S&P wiping out all of the previous session's gains led by financials, as investors continued to cautiously monitor developments in the European banks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down over 500 points, wiping out the previous session's 429-point rally. The blue-chip index has had triple-digit moves in four of the last five trading days. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also finished sharply lower. The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, soared more than 25 percent.

South Korea Shares Pounded By Morning Selling; Kospi Falls 9.9% SEOUL (Dow Jones)--South Korean shares were hammered by waves of selling Tuesday morning, driving the main Kospi stock index down as much as 9.9% and prompting the market operator to briefly suspend program trading. Selling dragged down most of the market, with banks and brokerages particularly hard hit. A surge of sell orders from foreign investors was the main driving force behind the selloff. At 0250 GMT the Kospi was down 8.4%. The market is in "panic" and "making any kind of comment would be meaningless...people are throwing stocks away...

Asia shares nosedive as gold scales another peak (Reuters) - Asian stock markets nosedived on Tuesday and the Swiss franc held near a record high, as investors dumped riskier assets in a global rout triggered by fears that political leaders are failing to tackle debt crises in Europe and the United States. Major indexes across the region fell between 2 and 5 percent, following drop of more than 6 percent on Wall Street in the first trading session since the historic downgrade of the United States' AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor's. The panicked flight-to-safety pushed gold to the...

Asia stocks plunge to join in global rout By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Asian shares nose-dived on Friday, joining in a global rout fueled by heightened debt and economic-growth fears, with energy and financial stocks among the worst performers. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index (HSI:HK:HSI) fell 4.9%, while the Shanghai Composite index (SHA:CN:000001) dropped 1.7%. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average (TYO:JP:NIK) closed the day down 3.7%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX:AU:XJO) ended with a 4% loss. South Korea’s Kospi (KRX:KR:0100) dropped 3.6%. “A complete crisis of confidence has emerged in the market,” said Toby Lawson, head...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors fled stocks on Thursday, putting the S&P 500 into correction territory, as worries about the U.S. economy and European debt escalated. All three indexes were down 2 percent, having fallen more than 3 percent each at one point. Decliners beat advancers on the New York Stock Exchange by 14 to 1. "People are throwing in the towel because they can't find relief on any front. There are a lot of worries about the economy," said Milton Ezrati, market strategist at Lord Abbett Co. in Jersey City, New Jersey, which manages $110 billion in assets. The...

Well, this is predictable... Today members of Congress has to reveal their stock holdings. We were curious what anti-Fed, pro-gold Congressman Ron Paul held, and no surprise, he likes gold. Lots of it. Here are the stocks he owns. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Agnico Eagle Mines Alumina Common Anglo Gold Ashanti Ltd. BrigusGold Corp. Com MPV (formerly Apollo Gold Corp) Barrick Gold Corp. Claude Research Inc Coeur D'Alene Minds Corp. Gold Corp Inc El Dorado Gold Corp. IAM Gold Corp. Kinross Lexam Explorations Inc. Mag Silver Corp. Metalline Mining Co. Mutual Securities Inc. Newmont Mining Corp. Pan American Silver Petrol Oil and Gas...

The USS Stark (FFG 31) burns and lists to port on 18 May 1987, one day after the guided missile frigate was struck by two Iraqi-launched Exocet missiles. The attack killed 37 sailors The New Sovereign Investment Fund of Libya or of Colonel Qaddafi, there is no distinction in the money funds of Libya or Qaddafi, invested $1.3 Billion with Goldman Sachs; the bank used the funds on stock options at a variety of international banks and a collection of currency bets. Two years later, the Libyan fund had lost 98% of its value and was worth only $25.1 million....

April 18, 2011 Mysterious Trades in a Big Block of Tokyo Electric Shares Draw Regulators’ Interest By KEITH BRADSHER TOKYO — Japanese regulators and executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company are asking questions about a seemingly coordinated series of stock purchases two weeks ago that led to an undisclosed buyer or buyers acquiring a large block of the utility, which owns Japan’s dangerously damaged nuclear power plant. Regulators want to know whether the trades, valued at up to $600 million and placed from Hong Kong during the week of April 3, were structured to circumvent Japanese securities laws, which...

Something is going on...perhaps nuclear situation is much worse than they are leading on.. Dow futures as of a short time ago off 209 points in pre market trading. Rough day tommorrow in the markets....

"Buy everything" sentiment continues on Wall Street Fri, Feb 18 2011 By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors will continue to ride the speediest rally in U.S. stocks since the Great Depression despite growing concerns that the market is overbought and due for a correction. Wall Street posted its third consecutive week of gains with the S&P 500 now up 6.8 percent for the year and more than 20 percent in just six months. "I've never seen a market like this," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont, a market watcher for 35...

NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse AG confirmed that they were in advanced merger talks, in a combination that would create one of the world's largest share- and derivatives-trading platforms. Duncan Niederauer, chief executive of NYSE Euronext, would serve as CEO of the combined entity, according to a statement from the companies confirming the discussions. The company would have dual headquarters—in New York and Frankfurt—with an executive committee equally drawn from both organizations. Reto Francioni, Deutsche Börse's CEO, would become chairman and be based in Frankfurt. No deal has yet been reached, according to the companies.

Cashed out approximately $45K of JP Morgan Chase stock due to the blatant cronism between it and Obama. Need info on where to send copy of trade confirmation and explanation of decision to get rid of stock. Thoughts/info in this regard are appreciated. Thanks.