The week that was:
Equities:
Yet another dismal week for equities. US markets were closed Monday in honor of President's Day, but on Tuesday they opened up about 2% down from Friday's close; and then they just steadily declined the rest of the week with a minor (about 1%) recovery in the last few hours of trading on Friday. Consensus seemed to be that the declines were due primarily to continued worries about the banks. Talk and rumors of nationalizing the banks picked up steam late in the week. On Friday, Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd even said that some banks may have to be taken over for a "short time."
Most big banks are hitting new lows. Citi (C) lost 22% on Friday to close at $1.95. In erratic trading, Bank of America lost only 4% to close at $3.79, but much higher than its intraday low of $2.53. Not even the great Oracle himself is immune - Berkshire A shares were down $1600 to $77,000 and have lost about 20% of their value already in 2009. This doesn't bother Mr. Buffet himself, he claims to pay no attention to the stock price (see article attached).
The tumultuous week brought the Dow to a new bear market low, a level not seen since 2002. The Nasdaq and S&P500 have a bit more room before hitting their lows of November 21 last year. By far this was the worst week yet of 2009, each of these indexes lost over 6%.
How is the rest of the world doing?
2009 Year to Date performance of major global indexes:
USA - S&P500: -15%
UK - FTSE: -12%
Germany - DAX: -17%
France - CAC: -15%
Japan - Nikkei: -16%
Hong Kong - Hang Seng: -12%
Singapore - Straits Times: -9%
India - Sensex: -8%
Treasuries:
Stocks go down treasuries go up. Treasury prices climbed higher pushing the yields on the 10 and 30 year notes down to 2.77% and 3.57% from 2.88% and 3.68% the prior week, respectively. Thus, not a good week for TBT and PST. The flight to safety has even pushed gold to over $1000 an ounce.
What to look for next week:
Thursday - Durable Goods Report
Friday - Consumer Sentiment and Revised Q4 GDP
Equities:
Yet another dismal week for equities. US markets were closed Monday in honor of President's Day, but on Tuesday they opened up about 2% down from Friday's close; and then they just steadily declined the rest of the week with a minor (about 1%) recovery in the last few hours of trading on Friday. Consensus seemed to be that the declines were due primarily to continued worries about the banks. Talk and rumors of nationalizing the banks picked up steam late in the week. On Friday, Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd even said that some banks may have to be taken over for a "short time."
Most big banks are hitting new lows. Citi (C) lost 22% on Friday to close at $1.95. In erratic trading, Bank of America lost only 4% to close at $3.79, but much higher than its intraday low of $2.53. Not even the great Oracle himself is immune - Berkshire A shares were down $1600 to $77,000 and have lost about 20% of their value already in 2009. This doesn't bother Mr. Buffet himself, he claims to pay no attention to the stock price (see article attached).
The tumultuous week brought the Dow to a new bear market low, a level not seen since 2002. The Nasdaq and S&P500 have a bit more room before hitting their lows of November 21 last year. By far this was the worst week yet of 2009, each of these indexes lost over 6%.
How is the rest of the world doing?
2009 Year to Date performance of major global indexes:
USA - S&P500: -15%
UK - FTSE: -12%
Germany - DAX: -17%
France - CAC: -15%
Japan - Nikkei: -16%
Hong Kong - Hang Seng: -12%
Singapore - Straits Times: -9%
India - Sensex: -8%
Treasuries:
Stocks go down treasuries go up. Treasury prices climbed higher pushing the yields on the 10 and 30 year notes down to 2.77% and 3.57% from 2.88% and 3.68% the prior week, respectively. Thus, not a good week for TBT and PST. The flight to safety has even pushed gold to over $1000 an ounce.
What to look for next week:
Thursday - Durable Goods Report
Friday - Consumer Sentiment and Revised Q4 GDP
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