Greek 'day of reckoning' shakes stock markets

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By BERNARD CONDON

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are broadly lower in afternoon trading Friday following steep declines in Europe. Investors are worried that Greece may default on its debt and exit the eurozone. Shares of several big U.S. companies, including American Express, dropped after disappointing results.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slumped 323 points, or 1.8 percent, to 17,779 as of 3:01 p.m. Eastern time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 29 points, or 1.4 percent, to 2,075. The Nasdaq fell 87 points, or 1.8 percent, to 4,920. All 10 industry groups in the Standard and Poor's 500 fell.

GREEK WORRY: Greece and its creditors are still struggling to find a deal that can keep the country from defaulting on its debt. The argument is over what reforms Greece should make in return for loans. Many think Greece will struggle to make payments to the International Monetary Fund due next month if it fails to reach a deal.

The concerns have caused investors to demand higher rates for loaning money to Greece's government. The yield on the country's benchmark 10-year bond jumped to 12.72 percent Friday. That rate has more than doubled from 5.51 percent in September and is the highest it's been since December 2012.

FULL story at link.



FILE-This Oct. 29, 2014 file photo shows the Wall Street subway stop on Broadway, in New York's Financial District. U.S. stocks are falling broadly in early trading on Friday, April 17, 2015, following steep declines in Europe and some results from big U.S. companies. Nine of the 10 industry groups of the Standard and Poor{2019}s 500 are down, led by information technology companies. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150417/financial_markets-072f819824.html

[BlueJazz]

1. The banks should be forced to loan Greek money @ 10 TIMES ((yes 10X) the going interest return..

...on Savings accounts. That would be something like 22 cents per Hundred Dollars.

[Downwinder]

2. At what point is it cheaper to forgive the debt

than to take the hit?

[JackRiddler]

4. "Forgive" is double talk.

The Greek people are the victims here, only they may one day be in a position to forgive what has been done to them by the Troika, the oligarchs, and the politicians of the now deposed ruling parties. It was never debt, it is plunder. It was never a bailout, except to the German and French banks who actually got the EU taxpayers' money that the Greek people were then told they "owe." Austerity was never reform, it was always a typical IMF program to break the economy, impoverish the people, and subordinate it to the desires of international capital.

[Downwinder]

8. I assume that the Greek debt, like U.S. mortgages,

Last edited Sat Apr 18, 2015, 04:39 PM - Edit history (1)

is supporting an inverted layer cake of derivatives with each layer being leveraged larger.

[JackRiddler]

9. I don't actually know.

I expect there are swap actions involving Greek debt notes but I don't know this hidden and no doubt intricate market.

[Adrahil]

10. Do you think the Greeks have any culpability?

Don't get me wrong... "Austerity," is never a good economic recovery plan, but the Greeks had (and still have) systemic economic issues. You can't have both massive tax evasion AND super generous retirement benefits. The numbers don't add up, especially if Greece doesn't control it's own monetary policy. Lots of mismanagement there.

[JackRiddler]

11. Who are your "Greeks"

No, the Greek people - the ones actually being punished - are not culpable for a debt largely accumulated by corrupt politicians working with oligarchs and foreign corporations, through crooked and in part secret deals (the books were cooked until 2009), and then multiplied by the insane forced "bailout" enforced on them by violence.

[wordpix]

3. any excuse to pump and dump

seriously, what does a possible Greek default on its debt matter to the stock market as a whole with Apple, Google, Facebook, Boeing, Raytheon, Exxon, etc. to invest in?

I can see that certain bonds investing in Greece and Europe would be hit, by why others?

[JackRiddler]

5. It's the larger message.

Greece is potentially the beginning of the end for the neoliberal outrages that have so well-fattened the 0.1% and also, in part, contribute to the profit margins of the multideath blue chips you mention.

[mother earth]

6. May it be so, and let it catch fire with every nation worldwide, an end to the Oligarchy.

[JackRiddler]

12. Turn out this story was a big lie.

The Bloomberg terminals crashed across the board - funny how that's not a headline - and that's why the market declined.

Blame the Greeks!