Posted on 12/24/2018 11:43:28 AM PST by reaganaut1
A bruising stock selloff continued, erasing more than 650 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to instill calm into a jittery market.
Coming off the stock market’s worst week since the 2008 financial crisis, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell for a fourth straight session Monday as investors continued to weigh the impact of rising interest rates, slowing U.S. growth, and the ramifications of a government shutdown extending into January.
With the selloff showing little signs of slowing, Mr. Mnuchin attempted to reassure investors, saying he had spoken individually with the chief executives of six large banks to ensure they had sufficient lending capacity.
But Mr. Mnuchin’s public efforts to soothe investors may have had the opposite effect, analysts said, with banks stocks falling along with most other assets Monday.
“We’ve gone through situations before where it’s absolutely normal for the secretary of Treasury to reach out to the private sector,” said Quincy Krosby, a chief market strategist at Prudential Financial, who also served several stints in the government earlier in her career.
“But what’s bad is this made the papers, and says the government is very worried,” said Ms. Krosby, adding that with investors focused on so many issues, “it’s almost as if gravity is pulling this market toward a lower level before it bottoms out.”
Adding to the market’s unease were reports over the weekend that President Trump, angry over monetary policy, has considered removing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell—a move that would stir even greater volatility and raise questions around political inference at the central bank, analysts said.
White House advisers, including Mr. Mnuchin, sought to ease those concerns as well, saying the president doesn’t have the authority to remove Mr. Powell.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
I really have to wonder why it is the business of the federal government how private equity markets behave?
Wow take some time to THINK about what Trump said, it’s spot on!!
You're telling me to go away?
Trump had to appoint on of the current governors to chairman, it was Powell or some democrat chick. All the other seats were empty. Obama originally appointed Powell.
read post 44 and learn something before you make ignorant comments.
Yes, and like always, it will overdo it on the low side too.
That brings opportunities. I bought a little energy today, with a yield of around 4.40%. I’ll keep buying from here for a while, whether things are going up, down or sideways. The various governments that control the bulk of world energy resources can’t operate at $40ish a barrel for long, with the exception of the US. $40 will slow private production soon.
Interesting thing is, price has been dropping for a while and lately accelerating. But American rig counts went up last week. The players who are drilling expect higher prices and fairly soon.
“You’re telling me to go away?”
Well, just for a minute.
I keed, I keed!
No, they are tanking the market to get Trump out in 2019.
Guns and ammo my boy, guns and ammo.
XOM? I'm looking at that again. Never missed a dividend since 1882.
I should buy some energy soon as well. Everything I holod in energy was bought when oil prices dipped below $30/barrel.
What ever happened to peak oil? The world is now swimming in oil with fracking procedures. And that in spite of Iran is constrained to sell and Venezuela is a mess.
The cheapest oil production costs were in Saudi Arabia. I remember a couple of decades back, it cost them $2/bbl to pump oil out. No exploration costs in Saudi. There are vast fields all over the place. May be with inflation it is now $10/bbl to pump oil.
I have a collection of NatGeo back to the 40s. I love reading those articles from the 70s that foretold the end of petroleum.
Of course the hidden dividend of fracking (and the corresponding Energy Independence of the US) is that we don’t need to send our sons and daughters to die in the desert halfway around the world to protect someone else’s oil. Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, etc.
That was the worst thing he could have done. He should have kept his mouth shut........And the Fed should not have raised interest rates.
If I didn't know better, I'd say the deep state was involved here........
Even if fracking was never invented, we should never have sent America’s best young people to die and get maimed in the middle-east. We spent $6 Trillion+ there since Bush-43, with borrowed money.
It really does not matter who controls the oil, because whoever does must sell the oil to eat and other necessities. Sand is extremely hard to digest.
As one who has followed actions for 5 decades, in my honest opinion this FED is doing exactly the right thing. Stocks are tanking for one reason more than any other, which is they were grossly over-valued due to the stupid ZIRP policy of previous 2 FED chairs. (Zero Interest Rate Policy).
To come down to AVERAGE VALUATIONS of previous 100 years, stocks need to decline another 30%.
Other members of the Board who were in place before that include Randal Quarles (Republican) since October 2017 and Lael Brainard (Democrat) since June 2014.
There were others who left before the completion of their 14-year terms, including Janet Yellen and Stanley Fischer. I believe either of these could have been the chair of the FED (Yellen as the incumbent chair, in fact).
Powell doesn't set FED policy on his own. There are five sitting Federal Reserve governors, and four of them were appointed by Trump. With two more nominees awaiting Senate confirmation, Trump will have appointed six of the seven Board members.
Are you really going to take the position that these people are all working to screw Trump? LOL.
Yep. Low volume imeans it’s super easy to move he markets. The computers never go on break.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.