Gobble Gobble
Issue: 11/19/07 Monday
This is supposed to be a quiet week according to the “experts”. The Dow went down 217 points today. I don’t call that quiet; I call that noisy. The Dow closed below 13,000 at 12,959. The market is trying hard to test its low, and the market is certainly volatile. Day traders are either making a fortune, or going bankrupt in this type of market.
The reason this should be a quiet week is that it is Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. The stock market is closed Thursday, but open for a short session on Friday. Historically, the daily volume of stocks traded this week is much smaller than usual.
The fear in the market is caused for the same old reason – financial crisis everywhere you look. Did you see the Citibank is going to write down $15B in debt? Didn’t we see that number much smaller just a short time ago? This is a great example of how all the financial institutions will SLOWLY leak the bad news on the market. Their thinking is that their stocks won’t get hit as badly that way. I wish them good luck. Another example of leaking the bad news is that Goldman (Everything is great Goldman) is going to write down at least $6B in debt.
The other interesting observation is the 10 year Bond. It is now at 4.08%. That’s low!!! Today’s market has been boosted by safe haven buying while FEAR pulls cash out of stocks. It is unusual during Thanksgiving week to have bonds move this much. But, don’t we live in interesting times?
Here is some news for you to ponder. Did you ever wonder what those home foreclosures are doing to the market value of all other homes – even yours? Well, here’s what one expert says. In those hot foreclosure markets, one in every three homes will get a decrease in its value by about $5000 because it is within a 1/4 mile of a foreclosure. Time to start looking at your neighbors.
Here are Monday’s closing details:
DJ30 – 12,959 (Down 217 points)
10 year US Treasury Bond – 4.08% (Down 0.07%) – the rate is very low now, so more is happening that meets the eye.
Euro $1.4666
Gold closed at $778 per ounce. (Down $9)
Oil Closed at $94.64 (Up $0.80)
Gasoline is $2.38 (No change)