| Wall Street Fluctuates As Investors Anxiety About Economy Intensifies
NEW YORK (AP) _ Wall Street bounced around in extremely volatile trading Wednesday, as bargain hunters entered the market and lifted stocks up from their steep losses. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 320 points, made it all the way to positive territory and then fluctuated into the last hour of trading. The volatility that has become a hallmark of Wall Street's performance in recent months likely will continue as investors take a further look at the most worrisome areas of the economy such as the housing sector, said Alan B. Lancz, director at investment research firm LanczGlobal. ``You're going to get the volatility because investors will see we're not out of the woods with the 75 basis point cut. I expect continued volatility and continued difficult times for the market to make significant progress,'' he said, referring to Federal Reserve's 0.75 percentage point cut in its benchmark federal funds rate on Tuesday.
Financial Blogs Bear Witness to Misery
While most U.S. investors enjoyed a day off for Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 21, financial bloggers watched the markets tank in Asia and Europe, and braced for big damage when the U.S. stock market reopened for business the next day. Bespoke Investment Group's Think B.I.G. listed the drops in each of the 30 Dow stocks in pre-market trading on Jan. 22—and it wasn't pretty. To illustrate how bad it is for traders, Trader Mike posted a video of a young distraught fellow losing gobs of money. (Warning: The video contains abundant profanity.) Long or Short Capital's tips for "how to end it" might cheer him up—or maybe not. Over at 24/7 Wall St., Jon Ogg asserted that the Federal Reserve is "far behind the curve," and asked if the Fed would attempt to limit the damage by cutting rates before its scheduled meeting on Jan.
High anxiety: Wall Street waits for Fed to make move on rate cut
In the 20 years Mike Marcotullio has worked on Wall Street, he's seen historic market reversals that pushed weaker men to the brink of despair. Like Jan. 23, when the Dow whipsawed 625 points in one day, fueling drama on the trading floor that ranked up there with the fallout from the crisis in the Long Term Capital Management hedge fund in 1998 and the technology bust of 2000 and 2001. "There has been a lot of fear, panic and insecurity in the markets and the U.S. economy based on the housing decline," said Marcotullio, senior principal in American Capital Partners, an investment bank in New York City. This week, the stock market has been buoyed by hopes Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke will announce a one-half percentage point decrease in the Fed's key rate today, and until he does, stocks will still be subject to wild swings, fueled by concern the unfolding housing crisis could lead to more write-downs in the financial sector and tip the country into recession.
Sensex nose dives again; Investors lose $150 Bn
Mumbai: Monday, the country's stock markets saw the benchmark index of the BSE shed 2,000 points intra-day before rallying marginally later in the afternoon and sensex closed 1,408 points down at 17,605 suffering a 7.40 percent loss. Still on the second day of the mind-boggling meltdown of stocks, which led to suspension of trading, market seems to be haunted by its severe impact.
On Tuesday, investors lost over $150 billion (Rs 6 lakh crore) within minutes of the opening of the Bombay Stock Exchange. Even after the market opened at 1100 hours, the bears continued playing and within an hour the BSE Sensex was reading down by over 2200 points leading to the suspension of trading for an hour.
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