The market seems to be selling-off on the back of limited bad news imo, apart from the dollar that is.

If you can hold your nerve and apart from any short term requirements to offload poor performing stocks, I have a couple!!, my advice would be sit tight. This does not have the feel of the tech(mining!) bubble at all. Difference being there are a lot of good fundamentals, unlike in 2000 when there were a lot of over rated nothing companies.

Given the number of fund managers who decided to retire before things came to a head last year....... I don't think any of them (the good ones at least) where particularly surprised.

No matter how people try to kid themselves, at the end of the day the economy has gone in cycles since the year dot, a big boom is often followed by a big bust. Monetry policy makes no difference because it's fear and greed of the market participants that cause (and often exagerate) these cycles.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.

The main difference between previous booms and busts and today, is that it is a whole lo easier to short all and sundry than ever before!

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article3942.html


.

Looks like it is quite safe to buy into the market again. The Fed has certainly turn around the markets. Well done!

Don't know if anyone is interested, but I have just been informed by HBOS that from midnight on Saturday they are pulling out of subprime lending to all self certification cases and to full status cases where the proceeds are for the purpose of debt consolidation.

In order to end the sell-off and rising inflation they will have to scrap $ for oil and gas commodities. Its the only solution. US is stuck as it cant lower the rate even further, cos the whole thing will just go crazy.

Why dont they just switch the currency to euro. I remember one of the oil producing countries Venezala was in favour of this.

Cant see it, wouldn't under-estimate states, dollar wil recover later in year, as they will be further ahead in the whole global slowdown cycle than the rest of the world and the Fed's rapid actions will see them reaping the benefits... (imo)

Venezuala would be. They have no use for the dollar cos of embargos due to supporting Cuba.
They major on supplying Cuba in return for healthcare (Cuba has no money), and the old eastern bloc who didn't like the US very much.
Not saying it iosn't an answer though, but to do so means almost all the middle eastern currencies would have to either tie to the euro or go it alone, as most are tied to the dollar now.

Lets face, I think middle east would love to get rid of US dollar! It would be a solution all terrorist fanatics!

I cant see the dollar will recover this year at all. They are fighting the recession too hard, rather than it happen otherwise it is going even harder to get out with amount of money poured into it to ease the worries.

Why it is cant they regularly review the price of oil and gas on a monthly basis similarly to interest rates and cap it sensibly. The prices at the moment are not relative to demand anymore which is becoming unfair to hike the price for other reasons. Its just ridiculous.

Evening all. Hi Alan, I think Saudi Arabia is seriously considering ditching the dollar peg and Kuwait has already done so.

Just revisited this thread after a couple of months and note the initial comments. I seems that first sell-off mentioned was absolutely spot on!

;-))

I've already said this, Darradev, that Kuwait has benefit from ditching their peg to US...see post 1424

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/wall-street-fears-for-next-great-depression-796428.html

Wall Street fears for next Great Depression

Margareta Pagano, Business Editor

Sunday, 16 March 2008


Wall Street is bracing itself for another week of roller-coaster trading after more than $300bn (150bn) was wiped off the US equity markets on Friday following the emergency funding package put together by the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase to rescue Bear Stearns.


One UK economist warned that the world is now close to a 1930s-like Great Depression, while New York traders said they had never experienced such fear. The Fed's emergency funding procedure was first used in the Depression and has rarely been used since.

A Goldman Sachs trader in New York said: "Everyone is in a total state of shock, aghast at what is happening. No one wants to talk, let alone deal; we're just standing by waiting. Everyone is nervous about what is going to emerge when trading starts tomorrow."

In the UK, Michael Taylor, a senior market strategist at Lombard, the economics consultancy, said on Friday night: "We have all been talking about a 1970s-style crisis but as each day goes by this looks more like the 1930s. No one has any clue as to where this is going to end; it's a self-feeding......................

Thanks Papalpower...I feel much better already...on a serious note...weird situation with South East Asia doing fine and the USA in the dumps...

Its weird all round.


March 16, 2008, 7:23 pm

Bear Stearns fetches $2 a share

Bear Stearns (BSC) got its buyout offer from JPMorgan Chase (JPM) Sunday night - but the all-stock deal is worth just $2 a share. Thats down from the $30 a share Bear closed at Friday and off from $170 last year. Earlier reports had the price ranging between $15 and $20 a share. The token price of Sundays announced deal shows how desperate Bear was to sell itself, and how concerned federal officials were about the possible knock-on effects of a Bear bankruptcy. Meanhile, JPMorgan is doing what it can to minimize the risks it is taking in buying a firm whose best customers fled last week amid a liquidity crisis, leaving behind a bunch of mostly also-ran businesses and a balance sheet full of toxic mortgage securities. A deal to merge Bear into a big rival is surely better for the markets than a Chapter 11 filing, but its hard to see this deal as a vote of confidence in the ailing financial sector.

Banks are going on cheap sale now.

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/investing-strategy/2008/03/17/stearns-goes-pear-shaped-whos-next.aspx

Stearns Goes Pear Shaped...Who's Next?

It had to happen.

The US version of Northern Rock. Sort of.

For days, investors and central bankers had become ever more nervous about the collateral ....................

It's funny...you could come back in possibly ten years time and say :"you remember when you could buy such and such a stock at such a cheap price...if only..." that could be the situation now...the difficulty is calling the bottom !

It seems to be a recovering market from now on...

For once...could be some serious blue tomorrow morning....good night guys and don't dream of stocks too much (pss. I know I do!).