Posted on 03/07/2009 9:52:29 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
With stocks mired in multi-year lows and the fate of General Motors and banks hanging in the balance, investors are unlikely to curb their flight from risk next week, putting Wall Street on track for another brutal sell-off.
One focal point will be a meeting between the US auto task force and GM, Chrysler and officials from the United Auto Workers in Detroit next week after auditors raised doubts about GM’s ability to survive outside bankruptcy.
Uncertainty over the plan to salvage banks will also hang over the struggling sector until more concrete details from Washington are revealed, leaving investors to fret that companies that were once pillars of the financial system will have to be nationalised.
The weak economy will likely be confirmed by a handful of economic reports, including a government report on February retail sales and a survey of consumer sentiment.
“There are, unfortunately, no guideposts to a lot of the market to allow investors to get a better sense of direction of where the market is going, where corporate America is going,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago.
“Short of that, we’re going to likely have to rely on Washington. Unfortunately, it just seems like Washington’s relationship with the stock market is strained.”
“PAINFUL” MARKET
With the Dow and S&P trading at 12-year lows, and the Nasdaq sliding to 6-year lows, market watchers will be looking for signs of whether a bottom has been found, or if indexes still have another leg down to go.
This week was the fourth week of declines for all three major US stock indexes, as the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 6.2 percent and the Nasdaq composite index fell 6.1 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 slid 7 percent, its worst week since November.
(Excerpt) Read more at thepeninsulaqatar.com ...
Ask and you shall receive. Thanks for the assist.
This one is going to be a double whammy...
First all the value of all our assets are being destroyed and then our currency will follow leaving no one untouched...
What a mess...
I’ve been predicting 3,000 for over 2 years but your 1750 is probably closer!!
See tagline.
“”Many stocks are now trading at unheard of historical P/Es which should signal a bottom””
When I was in economics in college they taught that anything over 7 times earnings was speculation.
Of course that was in 1955.
I saw an interview with Milton Friedman shortly before his death. He was asked if we should be concerned with all the foreign investment, but especially the investment by China. Essentially, his reply was "Where else are they going to put it? American is clearly the safest place to park their trillions".
That's about to change. You've heard about runs on banks, China could start the first "run on a country". A mess it will surely be.
By the time Obama, Reid, and Pelosi finish with us, this will be Zimbabwe West.
Inflation is brutal on cash.
I’m personally just buying businesses and am about to buy a McMansion...not something I ever figured I’d do or want to do...but I can buy a developer’s foreclosure in suburban Williamson county...Nashville for 80 bucks a foot ...5 acre parcels
i even looked at Pac Man’s house....lol....great land...30 acres but gawdy
30 year AM...5 percent and some other incentives...which can cut it to 2.5% first 5 years then 5% AM
they really need to move these behemoths
sell it down the road for what it used to bring 130-150 a foot
who knows....I got out of the market to buy more busineses like my own
rates are great and cap rates too, i’m trying to act like we are not in a recession with a commie POTUS....but I’m self employed and not jobless.
politically I’d like to see Obama languish the next 18 months
And the Ivy League genius. Tiny Tim Geithner. doesn't. have. a. clue.
Oy, vey.
"P" is recalculated continuously while the market is open, but "E" is revealed every quarter. So, a drop in price can be an anticipation of an earnings drop in the next quarter. Low P/E ratios, especially in this environment, signal weakness, not a coiled spring for the upside.
You're right again. But, I didn't say I was hoarding the Dollar. :-)
I'm self-employed as well. My business is OK but slowing, My wife and I live well below our means, so were not too concerned - plus college for kids is already taken care of. My parents just both retired and aren't deep in the market, but own a lot of real estate. They're scared. However, I think tangible assets are better than not in uncertainty like this.
If I thought the bottom was near, I would jump in, headfirst. But, I have no confidence that the worm will turn this year or next.
“The market is bringing Obama to his knees.”
As a regular citizen I am on the information I.V.—trickle by trickle.
But, I believe that he is nervous because of the magnitude of his job as a COMMUNIST—not as a capitalist.
Time will tell but he is in a position to benefit either way things might go.
If the market jumps he raises taxes and grows government and feeds his agenda.
If the market falls he grows government exponentially to “rescue” the American people.
Again, time will tell.
I would hope that America awakens and realizes that the left MEANS BUSINESS and WILL HARM YOU TO GET WHAT IT WANTS.
Then, having accepted reality, they can move to disarm and marginalize the left—send it back to its garbage heap.
On topic, Dow futures are up 43 points, so the premise of the article is nonsense. Reuters is just trying to kill the economy per Obama”s plan.
You were taught well.
From the looks of this chart, it seems the market could still have quite a ways to go on the downside:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/03/historic-pe-ratio-for-the-sp-500/
I agree, he is letting the market crash and is working to crash the dollar as well. His objective is the destruction of private wealth, which will leave the populace dependent on the government for its daily bread. Such people are easy to rule.
Actually, most people think a rally is coming next week.
It won’t amount to much, but any up day will be headline news.
‘China could start the first “run on a country”.’
China just increased its military spending by 15%.
It was 17.8 per cent in 2007 and 17.6 per cent in 2008, amounting to a rise of MORE THAN HALF since 2006.
Nothing to see here folks.
If I’m a Chicom this is fabulous time to ready the forces.
“But China is our friend and they NEED capitalism.”
NO, they NEED us to fall.
Communists are not above utilizing “capitalism” to achieve their end, folks.
Sorry, I know you wall-street/investor types don’t agree with that, but a commie, is a commie, is a commie.
In the end, they never disappoint.
Obama doesn’t seem to have a plan. He’s neither smart nor clever enough to have a well-thought out plan, in my estimation. The most ill-prepared man ever elected president was able to stumble and bumble his way into the Oval Office because he has a resonant and compelling voice when reading from a teleprompter. I sense that he is a lazy leftist ideologue who is in way over his head and who is feebly reacting to profoundly powerful forces he can scarcely understand let alone control.
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