Economic Dread Rocks Wall Street; Dow Surrenders 2012 Advance

[Sundowner]

Here's an investment tip to go with today's economic news:

Never invest in chat rooms with pictures.
They don't produce anything.

All of 2012's gains have been erased.
The debacle that is the collapse of the Euro has not even fully set in yet.

Buckle up.

Regards,
Sun
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Market participants bolted out of risky equity and commodity markets on Friday amid fresh evidence that many of the world’s biggest economies are losing momentum at a dramatic pace. The blue chips erased their 2012 rally and the broader S&P 500 tumbled to the brink of correction territory.

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 275 points, or 2.2%, to 12119, the S&P 500 tumbled 32.3 points, or 2.5%, to 1278 and the Nasdaq Composite sold off by 79.9 points, or 2.8%, to 2747.

The selling was quite broad on the day, with every Dow component and S&P 500 sector closing in the red. There were close to 13 trades in declining shares for each one in an advancing share. Meanwhile, volatility lurched higher by nearly 11%. Commodities weren't spared from the intense selling, with oil plunging close to 4% in its worst day since earlier this month.

Traders took shelter in only the safest asset classes, such as U.S. Treasury bonds. The yield on the 10-year plummeted 0.113-percentage point to 1.467%.

The U.S. economy added 69,000 jobs in May, the least in a year, and far less than the 150,000 economists expected. The job growth for April was also revised down to 77,000 from 115,000.Meanwhile, the unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed to 8.2% from 8.1% the month before. Digging into the report, the private sector tacked on 82,000 jobs, far short of the 160,000 expected, while the government shed 13,000 jobs.

"There is virtually nothing positive in this report if you are trying to build a case for an economy that is supposed to be in 'recovery' mode and gaining momentum," Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note to clients.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/06/01/economic-dread-rocks-wall-street-dow-surrenders-2012-advance/#ixzz1wa0W6Cpx

[homersipes]

Well all the stock market mumbo jumbo is jibberish to me but....... the ARRA(American recovery........... act)  that money is all gone now.  That was to create jobs, my craphole employer hired 7 guys I directly work with and I dont even know how many others were hired in other parts of the agency, but now that the money is all gone, they are all going to be jobless...................... .....AGAIN.  So is the unemployment going to rise again??  Seems to me like it was just a waste of time beins that we are going to be back to square one, just deeper in the hole with China.

[helbent]

Jeez great post, you just full of good news.

[Sundowner]

Jeez great post, you just full of good news.

Here's a happy video about a rabbit that herds sheep!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeuL5IGimCQ

And to brighten up this post a bit here's the happy lyrics that goes with the happy video!

    On the farm, every Friday
    On the farm, it's rabbit pie day.
    So, every Friday that ever comes along,
    I get up early and sing this little song

    Run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!
    Run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!
    Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
    Goes the farmer's gun.
    Run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run.

    Run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!
    Don't give the farmer his fun! Fun! Fun!
    He'll get by
    Without his rabbit pie
    So run rabbit – run rabbit – Run! Run! Run!

Regards,
Sun

[Sabre]

Not mentioned in the above article is the fact that gold jumped over $70 on Friday.  Now, typically precious metals react inversely to the dollar, since they (as well as oil) trade internationally in dollars. However, while the dollar did drop a little bit on Friday, gold made this rather large single-day jump, all out of proportion to the price of the $.  Note also that US bonds rose as well.  This matches what is happening in Europe, i.e. money is fleeing the at-risk countries in the EU for what are percieved as the safer haven of the dollar (and certain other sovereign currancies), US bonds, and precious metals.  And of course, a stronger dollar will hurt the US economy, as it makes US goods less attractive, i.e. more expensive.  Global economy sucks!!!  Buy gold, before the Euro completely tanks (it's at a record low against the dollar right now) and the price begins the inevitable climb above $2,000 and beyond.  

[SmokinLoon]

I wonder how all of this will play out in the elections this fall?  

I guess the second coming of Jeezus Christ did happen like he said he was.   

[bj229r]

All the state and local govt employees who were financed by the stimulus are being let go

[Maverick]

The facebook ipo was a small scale replay of the dot com fiasco.

[Ardy123]

The facebook ipo was a small scale replay of the dot com fiasco.

Facebooks ipo was a disaster for a number of reasons, one of which being that Goldman Sax helped them circumvent existing SEC rules so that they could have more than 499 investors by setting up shell companies('special purpose vehicle') which then in turn had 499 investors. This basically gave them up to 249,000 potential investors, without having to go public. Well as you can imagine, this enabled 'big-money' to already have a stake in FB. As the 'investors' cashed out during the IPO in hopes that the retail investor would make the difference, well they were wrong, the little guys don't have the capital they once did, and down went the price. The price may have another significant downwards bump at the ~6mo point(I don't know what their blackout date is) when all employees can exercise their options and sell their positions, which they will.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/03/AR2011010304497.html

[Bodhi]

Come on now.... the economy in the US is recovering and is better than ever.......

[TheAssi]

I don't care as long as I get to have dinner with Sarah Jessica Parker.

I love the equine look.