Stock investors see threats from all directions

AP/YahooNews ^ | 2/7/10 | TIM PARADIS

[Kartographer]

The threats seem to be coming from all directions.

Jittery stock traders react to each day's news as if it could be the start of Financial Crisis 2.0. On Thursday, the Standard & Poor's 500 index suffered its biggest one-day drop in more than nine months because of worries about debt problems in Greece, Portugal and Spain. Concerns about China's plans to limit economic growth and proposed regulatory bank changes from Washington also have pummeled the market.

The fears aren't as intense as in 2008, when the S&P 500 fell 38.5 percent. But January was the worst month for the market since it began its recovery last March. And the S&P 500 has fallen 7.3 percent from the high of 1,150.23 it reached Jan. 19.

[Recovering_Democrat]

The ASS PRESS covers for Hussein!

The fact is if Hussein and the liberals were not in charge, the market would be recovering in a much stronger way.

This is the same kind of thinking that says "both parties are alike" or "all politicians are crooks"...the stuff I hear from my liberal friends who are now unable to deal with the FACT that Hussein is a danger to our prosperity and security.

[proxy_user]

Some stocks are coming into buying range again. You just have to be patient and wait for it to come down to your price.

I picked up a little PM at just a bit over 45 on Friday. Still waiting for a good utility to hit 10 times trailing earnings, paying 6%.

[forester]

How many points did the Dow drop on thursday?

[steve86]

My price is S&P 500 cash 665 for a scalp, then short again.

[EGPWS]

Jittery stock traders react to each day's news as if it could be the start of Financial Crisis 2.0.

And the main reason being?

[YankeeReb]

I wonder if some of this drop is in preparation for the Bush tax cuts expiring. Right now dividends are taxed at a maximum of 15%, they'll be taxed at the regular income rate. Same story with capital gains, so many may be selling now to avoid this hit later. What Hussain is doing is making it tougher for companies to raise money. That has to help job creation </s>

I wish I could find it, but I remember during the campaign in '08 a reporter asked Hussain something to the effect of , Why are you raising the capital gains tax when it's been shown that a lower tax actually brings in more revenue? Hussain's answer was "It's a question of fairness not how much revenue is raised." This was around the time of Joe the Plumber. After that you rarely saw Soetoro without a teleprompter.

[pallis]

I’ve come to look at the stock market as an entity unto itself, a game that is subject to the reality its players impart upon it, like monopoly, except on occasions, the real world crashes the party, like the cat jumping onto the board and making a mess if everything.

[proxy_user]

Keynes, although not much of an economist, was a good stock picker. He explained that the stock market was a beauty contest where the idea was not to pick the prettiest girl, but rather to pick the girl that everyone else thinks is the prettiest.

[LZ_Bayonet]

"Right now dividends are taxed at a maximum of 15%, they'll be taxed at the regular income rate. Same story with capital gains, so many may be selling now to avoid this hit later."

This is likely happening and will help trend the market down, but Obama and Dems will probably pass the legislation to keep it at 15%. This, of course, would be done just before the Fall election so that the market shows a massive surge upward just before absentee balloting starts. Remember, you have to have a crisis to take advantage of it...and Rahm knows that if you don't have one handy you can always create one.

I heard someone comment on CNBC the other day that, "The center of Finance is moving from Wall Street to Washington D.C." It would be more specific to say it occupies prime space in Rahm's office in the White House, within an easy reach to the "bag of tricks".

[Gill]

I do not have any liberal friends!!