Does anyone know...

[Girlfriday]

...what happened to cause the stock market losses today?

DOW - -160.36
NASD - - 40.32
S & P- - 17.15

[Richardo]

1. We have an idiot in the White House?

Just a guess.

[judge_smales]

2. Poor earnings statements

This is the season for earnings reports and they haven't been good- especially Merck's. So stock types are banking some profits and waiting.

[Girlfriday]

5. Thanks Judge

and Welcome to DU :hi:

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. Earnings were not as good at they expected them to be!

The CEO's did not get the profits they desired so they will now lay-off tons of employees!

[papau]

4. Bush is back in US - and Treasury Sec Snow may have spoke

and someone may have really looked at the econ numbers and noted that the 7% to 8% growth rate in GNP is bull and not going to happen - in any quarter - as long as Bush is president.

But don't tell Fox or MSNBC - the "what to do in the new prosperity" shows are already scripted and are being run now.

[madmax]

6. It's rigged

I've never trusted the stock market. Ignorance of finance and markets may be the reason but, I still think it's rigged. :evilgrin:

[Maine-i-acs]

7. Too many reasons! here are some -

The Jobless Recovery is a joke, inflated by sales of War Equipment and Cushy Contracts to Shrub's cronies

Manufacturing jobs are being pissed away and the president does not care.

High tech IT jobs are being farmed out to India and China and the president does not care.




In short ...

A guy with a high-paying job wakes up one day to find his job is gone. So he schleps to the pavement and finds that he has to work a day job at WalMart and a night job at Target to break even.

Viola! That counts as a net increase in jobs, according to our Appointed Leader.

[glarius]

8. Everywhere he went on his trip he was met by anti-Bush demonstrators?

Could that effect the market? I'm sort of joking about this....but watching the CNN coverage of Bush's far east trip, you would never guess that everywhere he went there were crowds of demonstrators...including in Australia (one of the coalition of the "willing")....

[ramapo]

9. It goes up, it comes down

You can't make much sense of the market day-to-day. Some days it's up, other days it is down. It has had a good run of late and is probably ahead of reality.

Earning reports are ok by some but future outlook isn't so rosy.

[rapier]

10. more sellers than buyers

More sellers than buyers.

Any other story about "why" the market moves this way or that on any given day is just that, a story. Pick a story you like and tell it, preferably one which supports your beliefs or prejudices. Have fun. Don't mean a thing.

Sorry for my dismissive attitude, really. The important thing I want to stress is that these types of stories are misleading and destructive. Psychologically they are wonderfully satisfing. That's what propoganda is supposed to be after all.

[bemildred]

11. You've heard of sucker rallys?

Now we have sucker corrections too.