Stocks Fall
Stocks fell off a cliff today, down 290 points. Stocks were lead by the financial sector (banks, etc) as the bad news just keeps coming – repayment of TARP and stress tests.
Bonds rallied (lower interest rates) as stocks fell. This inverse relationship with stocks is well tried and tested, and very pronounced today. This is actually good news for bonds, as I believe there will be a big opportunity to make money in bonds coming up sometime in the future, and I’ll be watching closely.
The Dollar gained, and is testing recent highs.
Oil and gasoline were very interesting today. They fell as the poor future economic info came in, and fear took over. While all markets are emotional, and manipulated, this one is just fun to watch. If it falls tomorrow, it will break out of its recent sideways trend to the downside, and could spell lower energy prices – but we’ll see.
Gold gained a lot today as fear reined in the stock market. This is nothing more than an emotional run up in the gold price, so don’t get too excited – yet.
In the news today…..
The news was created by the markets themselves today. Stocks headed lower, and this could easily prove to be the first step in the downward spiral that could (will??) happen to test the lows in stock prices. My opinion is that stocks will continue to go down, but I’m proved wrong more than right in my stock predictions.
Here are the last numbers for today:
Dow Jones 30 Industrial – 7842 (down 290 points)
10 Year Treasury Bond – 2.84% (down 0.09%)
Euro – $1.2920
Gold – $888 (up $20)
Oil – $45.88 (down $4.45)
Gasoline – $1.41 (down $0.08)
