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The plumbing behind world's financial markets is creaking. Loudly
Reuters ^ | March 15, 2020 | by Tommy Wilkes

Posted on 03/15/2020 7:07:38 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

LONDON - The coronavirus panic is jolting stock markets, with steep drops in major indexes grabbing the public’s attention. But behind the scenes, there is less understood and potentially more worrying evidence that stress is building to dangerous levels in crucial arteries of the financial system.

Bankers, companies and individual investors are dashing to stock up on cash and other assets considered safe in a downturn to ride out the chaos. This sudden flight to safety is causing havoc in markets for bonds, currency and loans to a degree that hasn’t been seen since the financial crisis of a dozen years ago.

The key concern now, as in 2008, is liquidity: the ready availability of cash and other easily traded financial instruments - and of buyers and sellers who feel secure enough to do deals.

Investors are having trouble buying and selling U.S. Treasuries, considered the safest of all assets. It’s a highly unusual occurrence for one of the world’s most readily tradable financial instruments. Funding in U.S. dollars, the world’s most traded currency, is getting harder to obtain outside the United States.

The cost of funding for money that companies use to make payrolls and other essential short-term needs is rising for weaker-rated firms in the United States. The premium investors pay to buy insurance on junk bonds is increasing. Banks are charging each other more for overnight loans, and companies are drawing down their lines of credit, in case they dry up later.

Taken together, warn some bankers, regulators and investors, these red flags are starting to paint a troubling picture for markets and the global economy: If banks, companies and consumers panic, they can set off a chain of retrenchment that spirals into a bigger funding crunch - and ultimately a deep recession.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; chinavirus; coronavirus; covid19stockmarket; economy; globalmarkets; virus; wuhanp4
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Amazing. The Wuhan China P4 Virus has done severe damage to Western markets and economies without firing a single bullet.
1 posted on 03/15/2020 7:07:38 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Speaking of plumbing, Roto-Reuters is at it again.


2 posted on 03/15/2020 7:12:52 AM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I think much of the global economy is a sham. Trillions in dark money moves around but we don’t see it. If anything were to disrupt the hidden economy, some cleansing event, I think the world would be very different.


3 posted on 03/15/2020 7:15:25 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

4 posted on 03/15/2020 7:17:07 AM PDT by moovova
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

All this because American voters elected someone the elites didn’t approve of.


5 posted on 03/15/2020 7:19:30 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrats' John Dean])
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To: Jim W N

Reuters has become an agent of economic destruction like CNBC. These people have made the conclusion that getting rid of Trump is more important than the well being of millions. If there is a chance Trump gets the blame for an economic meltdown it’s worth it.


6 posted on 03/15/2020 7:20:53 AM PDT by gibsonguy
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

7 posted on 03/15/2020 7:21:38 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

bullet? “It wasn’t the bullet that laid him to rest but the low spark of high heeled boys.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3M8Sk7X51k

“We were children once, playing with toys”


8 posted on 03/15/2020 7:25:25 AM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I was looking at earnings for a number of major companies outside of the ones that will obviously take hits (airlines, tourism) and they are holding up quite well.

Few downward revisions.

China is already reporting less cases each day.they could be lying but we don’t see the incinerators going like they were early on.

In a few months things will be rocking and rolling again and some great buys will be out there.

If it was ALL financially driven, we wouldn’t have had an 1800 point move up on Friday.

85 percent is fear.

And that fear will go with the virus.

And regardless of what so many are saying..it will go away.


9 posted on 03/15/2020 7:26:59 AM PDT by dp0622 (Radicals, racists Don't point fingers at me I'm a small town white boy Just tryin to make ends meet)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)
NasdaqGS - NasdaqGS Real Time Price. Currency in USD
Add to watchlist

Quote Lookup

158.83+19.77 (+14.22%)
At close: March 13 4:00PM EDT

Microsoft still has a market cap of a massive $1.2 Trillion. No company was worth even $1 Trillion when Trump took over.

10 posted on 03/15/2020 7:27:50 AM PDT by SmokingJoe
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To: dp0622

The market runs on fear and greed. That is no secret.

What is “different” this time is the degree of automated trading and the leverage in the markets. It creates these huge volatile swings.

The best thing that could happen is slow down automated trading.

But that’s not going to happen. Everyone likes cheap, high volume trading.


11 posted on 03/15/2020 7:29:53 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: gibsonguy

They don’t realize that the fear monster has eaten their plan.

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3824334/posts


12 posted on 03/15/2020 7:30:52 AM PDT by FlipWilson
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

On the plus side, if the dollar loses all value, it still has some worth as toilet paper stockpiles dwindle.


13 posted on 03/15/2020 7:31:38 AM PDT by LouieFisk
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Insanity continues.....


14 posted on 03/15/2020 7:32:46 AM PDT by LoveMyFreedom
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To: Vermont Lt

But it is opening up some good opportunities to invest. A lot of good stocks are way undervalued and in a month when this has settled down, they will go back up.


15 posted on 03/15/2020 7:32:51 AM PDT by okkev68
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To: okkev68

No doubt.

One simply needs to be prudent.


16 posted on 03/15/2020 7:35:24 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: dp0622
Tomorrow's gonna be a blood bath probably unprecedented. Panic and shorting - good times. Then the traders start getting the Wuhan but yeah time to work out your hedge strategy and fast.

Where did the floor go?

17 posted on 03/15/2020 7:42:52 AM PDT by datricker (Cut Taxes Repeal ACA Deport DACA - Americans First, Build the Wall, Lock her up MAGA!)
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To: dp0622

“...China is already reporting less cases each day.they could be lying but we don’t see the incinerators going like they were early on. ...”

Looking for website showing pollution/atmospheric changes..


18 posted on 03/15/2020 7:43:07 AM PDT by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57 returning after lurking since 2000)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
The coronavirus panic is jolting stock markets,

They're crowing that the ReutersCNNABCCBSMSNBC plan is working.

19 posted on 03/15/2020 7:44:39 AM PDT by libertylover (Socialism will always look good to those who think they can get something for nothing.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Hysteria at the super market no different than the hysteria in the stock market, this will all be over soon the stocks will go thru the roof and those of us who see a buying opportunity will reap the rewards


20 posted on 03/15/2020 8:06:16 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (nicdip.com)
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