US stocks open sharply lower, extending losses

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By ALEX VEIGA

U.S. financial markets opened sharply lower Wednesday, as the Dow Jones industrial average headed toward its fourth consecutive loss. Traders piled into bonds, fleeing risky assets and driving the yield on the 10-year Treasury below 2 percent. The slide comes amid lingering fears of a global economic slowdown.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average slid 120 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,198 as of 10:01 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow had plunged as much as 369 points in the first few minutes of trading, then clawed back much of the ground it had lost. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 12 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,865. The Nasdaq composite dropped 22 points, or 0.5 percent, to 4,205.

GROWTH WORRIES: Stocks have been declining for nearly a month as investors worry that economies in Europe and Asia are slowing. The Dow is now down 2.3 percent for the year, while the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq are barely in the green for 2014.

SECTOR WATCH: The 10 sectors in the S&P 500 declined, led by financial stocks. Bank of America fell 34 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $16.18.

FULL story at link.



In this Oct. 8, 2014 photo, an American flag flies in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York. U.S. stocks are plunging in early trading Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014, as traders flee risky assets. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141015/financial_markets-b273f68deb.html

[Kelvin Mace]

1. If I may translate:

The Dow Jones industrial average slid 120 points, or 0.7 percent, to 16,198 as of 10:01 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow had plunged as much as 369 points in the first few minutes of trading, then clawed back much of the ground it had lost. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 12 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,865. The Nasdaq composite dropped 22 points, or 0.5 percent, to 4,205.

Using less "colorful language", The Dow is down 120 point from its close yesterday. It declined 369 points at the opening, a time which often sees wild swings in trading. It should be noted that the markets are up 60% from where they were five years ago in the middle of the Great Recession, or about 12% a year.

Stocks have been declining for nearly a month as investors worry that economies in Europe and Asia are slowing.

PANICZ ON WALL STREETZ!!!!!

Our bonuzes may only be $5 or $6 million this yere!!!!!!!!!!

Or,

Unsustainable growth fueled by lack of regulation, risky hedge funds and dubious "investment instruments" while cutting taxes, imposing "austerity" budgets and refusing to fund infrastructure projects, is unsustainable.

[Psephos]

2. You forgot one small thing.

The dollar is FAKE. It represents nothing but a debt promise from a government that has no problem printing several billion of them every day, from thin air, and handing them to bankers at a quarter of a percent interest to "invest" in equally fake Wall Street financial "assets." It's a bubble machine. No bubble in the history of economics has ever failed to pop - and they all know this.

You and I have to earn our dollars with sweat and effort. The govt. pushes a computer key and a billion more of them appear. No asset behind them, no labor, no invention, no creation of goods, no precious metal, no nuthin'. Then because the dollar is the reserve currency, we send these fake dollars overseas, and in return, receive real goods. Oil, machinery, food, consumer goods, on and on. Fake money buying real things. Yeah, that's a sustainable system for sure.

The rest of the world is beyond fed up with the US govt's criminal abuse of the dollar's reserve status, and is actively moving away from the dollar system.

When that happens within the next few years, the US government will have to pay real-world interest rates instead of phony printed-dollar "QE" rates, and will find itself in the same death spiral as Japan.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

3. It's a correction

Pullbacks of 10-15% off of highs are a notmal part of the market, and do not signal Great Recession II.

I'm looking at a floor somewhere between 15000 and 15500. It may briefly drop below that, but I think that's a pretty certain line of support. All & all, the overall market is in good shape, if a bit overbought.