30 June, 2009

Morning trade halts stock rally

100 points off for the Dow before lunch as markets in North America prepare for National Holidays. Canadian Markets close tomorrow for Canada Day while Americans prepare for the 4th of July weekend leaving markets in trading flux for the week. Today's decline was pushed in part by a lower reading of consumer confidence for the month of June. May highs in consumer confidence retreated partly in June, putting some traders on edge over the supposed recoveries in consumer spending expected this summer.

The world media has seen its share of tragedy this past week with the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and the King of Pop Michael Jackson. The 'Thriller' singer's death has overshadowed many noteworthy market moments of the past few days due to the sheer global reach of Jackson's fame. The legacy of this great singer, and polarizing personality, will be up to debate seemingly forever.

At the top of the market pages was the sentencing of Bernie Madoff, responsible for the biggest individual Investment Fraud of all time, now getting his just due, with a sentence of 150 years in prison and the forfeiture of virtually all his related assets.

Other noteworthy market swings included a further decline of housing prices and a drop in Oil. Housing prices tumbled 18% year over year, as well as 0.6% month over month in April and Oil retreated back below $70, settling around $69 a barrel.

2 comments:

RK said...

such a crucial time for the market... getting ready for a possible downside as 50day moving average on S&P500 gets re-tested today... people are just starting to realize that even though stable, the economy is still in bad shape with almost 10% unemployment....

Chris Krasowski said...

Agreed, the optimism in the steady slowing of job erosion last month got turned on its head today. We are still in a fragile marketplace, despite some good economic indicators. People will still need work and disposable income to truly turn coasting-along into recovery.