Stocks Down on Bank Woes and Oil Price Increase

[RedEarth]

Source: NYT

Who cast a dark spell on Wall Street?

The Dow Jones industrials tumbled more than 220 points — falling below 12,000 for the first time since March — as a host of options and futures contracts reached their expiration date, a financial ritual known to investors as “quadruple witching.”

Investors scrambled to take profits ahead of the 4 p.m. “witching hour,” when contracts expire and prices are set in stone. The result: a volatile, occasionally violent day in the markets that left shares of financial firms and big businesses battered.

The sell-off capped a dreary week on Wall Street, where investors got spooked by inflation fears and continuing woes at investment banks. The Dow, down nearly 3.7 percent for the week, staggered back toward its low for the year.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down about 1.8 percent on Friday and 3 percent for the week, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq slipped 2.2 percent.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/business/21stox.html?_r=1&ei=5065&oref=slogin&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

[TomClash]

1. 10,587

That was the Dow on January 20, 2001, when the Long National Nightmare began.

This afternoon it closed at 11,842, about a 13% improvement in 7 1/2 years.

When Bill took office the Dow was at 3241.

[Jack from Charlotte]

4. Adjusted for inflation, the market is below water.....

under The Moron Administration. I ran the numbers again the other day and we were up something like 2 1/2 percent since Jan 20, when the Moron took office. Would not surprise by the coming Jan 20th we're below 10,600. The market has never closed lower under any president since The Republic Party hero, Herbert Hoover. Geo Bush might just be #2.

[Name removed]

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[sharesunited]

3. Hang on there, McVeigh. Some of us are still managing to scrape along.

[Name removed]

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[sharesunited]

7. You can rehab some pretty crumbling ratholes. I'm not ready to demolish.

[JDPriestly]

9. Not if you are relying on income from investments, cash savings

and Social Security and are just a normal person. Inflation has lowered your standard of living if you fall into that category. And several people in my family do: my very elderly mother for one.

[anigbrowl]

8. Yeah - who needs economics or complexity? Back to the trees!

Sorry, I'm not really in favor of throwing the baby out with the dirty bathwater.

[wellstone dem]

5. It's because Barak

didn't take public financing. :rofl: