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March 02, 2009

A Blizzard Buries Stocks

I'm home thanks to the 8+ inches of global warming that fell over night, but it's the equity markets that are getting snowed under


Global stocks have fallen sharply on fears the global financial sector could take a further turn for the worse.

In Europe, the UK's FTSE 100 fell by 4.2%, while Germany's Dax was down 2.8% and France's Cac 40 lost 3.6%.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei index closed down 3.8% at 7,280.15, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 3.9%.

Confidence was hit by a fresh $30bn bail-out of US insurance giant AIG, and news that UK bank HSBC aimed to raise £12.5bn from its shareholders.

I thought this AIG news was in the market last week? No matter; everything is taken as bad news right now. Consumers...aren't, so the vicious death spiral has begun: people are spending less because they're over-extended and concerned about their jobs, which means companies make less money so they have to fire people. A nasty feedback loop is set up, and it will only get worse for a while, I fear.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at March 2, 2009 09:19 AM

Comments

Re the impact of the AIG news. The Citi news was known for most of last week. That didn't stop Citi from getting cranked real hard on Friday.

Posted by: Yojimbo at March 2, 2009 12:00 PM

8+ inches sounds pretty good to me... :D

Posted by: Julie at March 2, 2009 12:37 PM

Can I say "I enjoyed it" without blushing, Julie?

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at March 2, 2009 02:01 PM

I know about AIG only because my dad's in the insurance field. We got around half the amount of snow you did, and he somehow skated to the office because this stuff is making him a bit edgy.

(You guyyyys. . . behave!)

Posted by: Kate P at March 2, 2009 03:09 PM

300 points off the Dow today and S&P at 700. Oy!

Posted by: Retread at March 2, 2009 06:21 PM

As long as you say it stiffly, Bingley :).

Posted by: Julie at March 3, 2009 10:33 AM

I ain't saying nothing or Kate will spank us again.

On second thought...

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at March 3, 2009 02:55 PM

LOL!!!!!

Posted by: Kate P at March 3, 2009 09:42 PM