Wall Street Posts Worst Day Since November 7 On Gold's Drop, Boston Blasts
Source: REUTERS
NEW YORK | Mon Apr 15, 2013 6:16pm EDT
(Reuters) - Stocks posted their worst day since November 7 on Monday as big declines in the price of gold, oil and other commodities fed a broad selloff in equities.
Weaker-than-expected data from China sparked the initial decline, but selling accelerated late in the session as reports of two explosions in Boston near the finish line of the Boston Marathon unnerved investors.
Commodity-related shares led stocks' losses, with gold suffering its worst two-day sell-off in 30 years as the China data fueled worries about the strength of the global economy. The SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD.P) lost 8.8 percent to $131.31 on record volume.
Total trading volume was the second highest of the year, with about 8.5 billion shares changing hands on U.S. exchanges.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/15/us-markets-stocks-idUSBRE93006T20130415
DrDan
(20,411 posts)lot of tears from glenn beck I am sure
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)siligut
(12,272 posts)Yes, troubling, the market usually waits until May to falter.
Response to Purveyor (Original post)
OKNancy This message was self-deleted by its author.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)I know the OP quoted the headline verbatim, so I am not criticizing the OP. But the stock market performance had absolutely NOTHING to do with Boston. The blasts happened 70 minutes before the market close and the market did not show any reaction to that. The decline was steady throughout the day, and it actually leveled off a little in the last hour.
Facts have absolutely no importance to our media any more. They just say any shit that comes to mind.
Now, the blasts COULD have an impact on Tuesday's open, but maybe it would be better for that news to actually happen before reporting it.
CountAllVotes
(20,854 posts)BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)1) Realizations that China's economy is losing its momentum
2) A bunch of gold speculators panicking and liquidating their positions.
The two are related. Commodities in general were hit hard today, and a lot of that flows from the China news. But no commodities were hit harder than Gold. All these Republican nitwits have driven a panic that our "massive, unprecedented deficit spending" will drive a big inflationary cycle. We have been heading toward a bubble in gold because there just aren't any signs of high inflation. When you have so many people unemployed worldwide and so many idiots in power pursuing a strategy of austerity, it is hard to actually have much inflation.
So the gold bubble was ready to burst, and the China news was the bit that pushed it over the edge.
As tragic and horrible as the bombing was, it is a non-factor economically. Tomorrow could certainly be another rough day for gold. All those Glenn Beck listeners may head for the hills tomorrow. The good news is that most of Beck's listeners have never had two dimes to rub together, and those scam ads he runs mostly don't sell "gold" per se. They sell medallions and other trinkets that aren't really much of a factor on the commodity market.
So I'd bet that most of the adjustment happened today. And a lot of money went to the sidelines in a hurry. Once people see where gold stabilizes, they will be back into stocks. In fact, some of that gold money will move into stocks, so I wouldn't be surprised to see today's loss recovered within a couple of weeks.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)Hang Seng shed 1.5% in early trading but then stabilized. That's basically just reflecting some of the US market adjustment with no further erosion indicated.
Straights Times took a big dip at the open, but has recovered almost all of that.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)The Dow was at 14,699, already down 165 points on the day.
At 3:56, it was 14,655, down only slightly in the hour following the bombing.
Then in the last 4 minutes of trading it dropped another 55 points, which obviously had nothing to do with Boston because that was well over an hour earlier.
The big drops happened:
- at the open -- 65 points
- from 11:30 to 1PM (almost 3 hours before the blasts) -- 120 points
- the last 4 minutes -- 55 points
That's 240 of the 265 points lost during the day, and none of that had anything to do with Boston.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)It is in the charts and that is 'just the way it is'...
We are through...
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)The best I can tell, the bombs went off at 2:45. At that moment, the Dow was at 14,699. It closed at 14,599. That is 100 points, not 120.
Moreover, 2/3 of that drop (66 points) came in the last 6 minutes before close, which obviously had nothing to do with the Boston situation. The actual drop that one MIGHT attribute to the Boston news was no more than 50 points, but that is in the context of a day where the market was in steady decline all day long, and the hour after the Boston attack was more stable than any other part of the day.
Response to BlueStreak (Reply #12)
Purveyor This message was self-deleted by its author.
goldent
(1,582 posts)Purveyor
(29,876 posts)goldent
(1,582 posts)It is a textbook case of reporters pulling facts out of the air to explain an insignificant change in the stock market.
The funny thing is they do this all the time, even though many times it is not so obvious.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)This market seems like it is walking on ball bearings. The slightest news from Cyprus or China is enough to spook the market by 200 points, and then it reverses that over the following days.
What we have is a fundamental disconnect between earnings and consumption. We are certainly not at a healthy level of employment that can sustain consumer spending. But we are still on the tail end of the "productivity" increases that have propelled Fortune-500 profits to record levels.
And by "productivity", let's be clear. It is something approaching slave labor where employers are in a position to demand that people do the work of 2 or 3 people or else they will be out of a job. That's why Cheap Labor Republicans [tm] love this 8% unemployment.
But it is not sustainable, and another big market crash lies somewhere out there. The trick is knowing when to jump off the ship. We saw just how skittish people are where they dumped a lot of positions the last 6 minutes of the trading day yesterday because they were afraid to carry that position even overnight.
It is something like a game of "musical chairs". Everybody knows the music will stop. They are just trying to make it as long as they can. And most of them have banked loads of profits during this run-up, so they are willing to take it right up to the breaking point.
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)I picked up some iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) near the bottom.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)Was this a short-term transaction, figuring the market was over-reacting?
Do you see a migration from gold to silver as people lose faith in gold?
So other thinking?
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)In 2010 I sold some physical silver that I had held for 20+ years. I dumped all I had at about $18.50 because I needed cash and it seemed like a good time. It's been higher than that for most of the time. But I've never regretted that sale because I just about tripled my money, not counting for inflation.
There was a peak in early 2008 of about $22. That's why I set my buy point at $24. Not really scientific, but I understand that there is basically a floor value for silver because of its industrial uses. Any value over that is not intrinsic; it's pure speculation.
I don't indulge in speculation much. About 98% of my assets are in blue chip stocks, dividend-oriented ETFs, and a REIT. But I do keep a reserve of cash on hand for opportunities like what I believe was an unusual dip in precious metals. If I lose, I won't lose much.
Do you see a migration from gold to silver as people lose faith in gold?
No. Silver is just more volatile than gold.