Europe and Asia Mauled, DOW Below 10,000

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stockcrash.jpgDOW down 400+, below 10,000. Credit markets still tightening. World stocks extend losses: London and France down 9%.

Earlier:

WSJ: European shares tumbled Monday morning after renewed turmoil in the financial sector over the weekend heightened anxiety over the state of the global economy.

The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index was down 5% at 248.36, with the banking index down 5.2%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index was 5% lower at 4731.10, while France's CAC-40 Index lost 5% to 3875.80. Germany's DAX Index plummeted 4.8% to 5520.89.

While the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $700 billion financial-sector bailout Friday, global investors' spirits remained low amid questions over how the plan will be implemented and how effective it may well be in preventing a global economic recession.

"We now believe national recessions in the U.S. and the U.K. will be deeper and longer than previously forecast," said Larry Hatheway, an economist at UBS in London. "For the first time, we also anticipate recession in the euro zone."


WSJ: Asian stock markets plunged Monday as investors shrugged off a U.S. bank bailout and focused instead on deepening financial turmoil in Europe.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 Index hit its lowest level in more than four years, falling 4.3% to close at 10473.09. The Topix index of all the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section issues fell 4.7% to 999.05.

Bank collapse and stabilization efforts in Germany partially to blame.  But let's be serious: The completely coupled global economy is headed into the tank, and there's nothing Hank Paulson can do about it.

11 Comments

lalala said:
Russia once again stopped trading (they said it's only for an hour...we'll see) after a nearly 20% daily loss.
But didn't young Dmitri promise to fix the stock market? No reelection for him!
adrian said:
So do they have less regulation in Europe? No? Wonder why it didn't help?

Big government apologists can insert their logic defying arguments for regulation here..
Fair point. Can't regulate away the business cycle. Didn't help that we gave money away for free for two years, though.
dj said:
Nice chart,how about a big 10yr , relax life is good,bear etf's rock
adrian said:
The FED's main purpose is to regulate away the business cycle. Are they a failure as well? (yes)


Rick said:
Logic defying argument here.

Actually simply regulating and having smart regulations are two different things. UBS and a few other big european banks are levered up even more than Bear Sterns when it tanked. The opacity of Swiss banks is legendary. The bigger banks in Europe are easily able to defy regulation they don't like by moving resources to subsidiaries in other countries. This also allows them to negotiate looser regulations in countries that compete for tax revenues and political payoffs.

So, much like the US, the big banks in Europe pretty much could do as they choose and they choose to take big risks in the hopes of big returns. They got it wrong and are now screaming to be protected from their mistakes.

The core issue for all of these banks is "too big to fail".

A stitch in time saves nine. Waiting until the garment unravels means starting over.

Thanks for allowing me to attempt to defy logic.
Gordon said:
nasty. at this rate, pretty soon i'll be down to my last million.
adrian said:
So rick, would you say that the only effect that regulation does have is to incorrectly instill confidence in institutions that possibly would not be invested in/with by the population?

seems pretty crappy to me.

Richard said:
So Henry how is you stock portfolio? Given the reporting on this site I assume you are 100% cash???

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