Posted on 07/07/2005 1:27:02 PM PDT by Steven W.
Wall Street manages to eke out gains and European bourses trim sharp losses seen after London explosions. Experts say investors are starting to focus on fundamentals again. Oil falls after a wild morning of trading.
If there's a word for stock markets today, it's "resilience." One word that doesn't apply is "panic."
A series of explosions in the London subway system and a blast that destroyed a double-decker bus left at least 37 dead and 700 injured, MSNBC.com reported. But while the explosions, described by Prime Minister Tony Blair as an apparent terrorist attack, scared investors at first, equity markets managed to limit losses as the morning progressed.
On Wall Street losses were muted. Stock index futures pointed to as much as a 200-point drop in the Dow Jones industrials before the opening, but the blue-chip index was off just a dozen points in the mid-afternoon. The Nasdaq composite edged up slightly and the S&P 500 index dipped just a couple of points.
European benchmark indexes naturally struggled more, but were also well off lows caused by knee-jerk selling. London's FTSE 100 fell 1.36%, the Paris CAC 40 lost 1.4% and Frankfurt's DAX dropped 1.85%. But these bourses were down as much as 4% earlier....
So how did the markets keep the selling from spiraling out of control? According to market watchers, as it appeared the bombings were over and British authorities had things under control, investors were able to put the event in perspective and start to focus on fundamentals....
It appears the London bombings are not as devastating as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and the March 11, 2004, bombings in Madrid, Brady said....
"The fundamentals of (the U.S.) economy remain sound," Brady said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
As I'm sure all my fellow FReeper traders will agree, today was a glorious day to trade index futures. The SPs sold off down to 1170, and then as soon as Tony Blair spoke at 1178, the market never looked back. WHOOSH. what a day.
"Imo this gain in our markets, small as it is, is HUGE. It sends a clear message that we will not be intimidated by the cowardly vermin. Their primary goal of wiping us from the planet can only be accomplished by the destruction of our economy, the success of which in the end is based on the confidence of the public."
Well put. I also think that most people on both sides of the pond have come to understand we are at war and there will be casualties. I hate this nasty stuff. We need to be equally nasty and hope both countries are ramping up special ops to return the favors.
And how! At the beginning I saw the drop and I started looking over what I'd been wanting to dump just in case maybe I was playing a little 'too hard to get'.
Then I saw the mobs of bidders showing up and all the sellers disappearing.
I left my asking prices just as they were and never looked back.
Another Failure for the Cowards. Good. very good the markets fought back.
It isn't that at all. The black boxes that do the majority of the trading have no emotions -- no fear -- and the software algorithms that drive them are unaware. The fact that some human speculators continued to speculate -- well, that's more indicative of extreme complacency than any kind of courageous response. Out of complacency come panics when the mood changes and the denial ends.
To me, the best indication of American's lack of intimidation will be continued tourist visits to London. Alternatively, and I expect this, many cancellations will occur.
"To me, the best indication of American's lack of intimidation will be continued tourist visits to London. Alternatively, and I expect this, many cancellations will occur."
Your probably right. I would think it would be the right timing to go to London, it will be cheaper getting over there.
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