Is anybody watching the stock market today? Holy hell...

[newtothegame]

Biggest loss in 2 years.

[FrenchieCat]

1. went down to nearly a 1,000 point drop,

and then came up 300 points.

Never seen anything like it other than 2 years ago!

[Statistical]

8. Yeah I got this pit in my stomach like 2 years ago.

Ouch that was brutal down 992 I mean those are the kind of red numbers you never want to see.

Now I am thinking of lightening up on the bounce. I wonder if my make another leg down.

Thank got I got a hedge (bear put spread on SPX) and short the Euro.

[Hosnon]

16. Me too - brings back bad memories. nt.

[madokie]

31. Big oil spill has everyone with half a brain cell worried methinks

or at least the stock market anyway. this oil spill no matter how the msm and bp want to spin it is going to have some devastating effects on all live here on earth and to me only a fool would see that differently. Maybe that fool is me I don't know but I do know that there will be some serious repercussions from this one. It's not like they have any idea as to how to turn it off so there is no telling how long it will continue spewing. I read that the cementing was only approved for depths of 18000 ft and they had taken that well to 25000 ft. The pressures at the deeper depths were in the 20,000 to 30,000 psi range well over the pressures at 18,000 ft. Seems there should have been laws against that and if there were some have been broken and the perpetrators should be hauled in front of a judge.
If we wind up paying for this in any way shape or form will be criminal. This should be on the backs of the responsible parties. Well maybe we can expect some of the blame as the MMS I think it is who overseas this, weren't exactly doing their jobs either. Its going to be our grandchildren and great grandchildren paying for all of this.
Not a one of the higher ups in the corporations guilty should walk away with a penny in their pockets. Not one dime left. Homeless, pennyless and indebted for the rest of their miserable lives.

[AnArmyVeteran]

35. Absolutely Madokie! Let's stop this madness and throw corporate thugs in prison for life!!!

I am sick and tired of irresponsible corporate leaders corrupting my government, paying prostitutes to write laws favoring them, killing people and destroying my environment. I firmly believe you have to be a sociopath to be a CEO or executive at a lot of companies. All they care about is making money, and if they screw up, WE PAY. We the people ALWAYS PAY. But not one executive in the entire BP corporation should be left with a dime in their pockets, bank accounts and we should seize all of their assets, including their dozen mansions to pay restitution to their victims.

Under corporate law ( created by corporate government prostitutes ) the leaders of corporations are virtually immune to any personal liability. WHY!!!!! Why are they exempt from the laws all the rest of us have to follow? Why can they kill people and destroy the environment at will with no personal penalties? I say put them in prison, and if we don't have the laws to put them there we need to change them. And if our government leaders are too corrupt and are corporate prostitutes they need to be thrown out of office. Both political parties have their fair share of whores, but the republican party seem proud of their position as prostitute to any corporation which throws money their way.

Unless we the people do something corporations will destroy our country and every other thing in their path. Capitalism that is unchecked is evil and dangerous. Wake up people. Wake up...

Lastly, we are not only up against corporations and their political whores, we are up against millions of completely ignorant conservatives who act like corporate cheerleaders. Just how stupid are these people? Are they so stupid they can't see how corporations are invading their lives every day, endangering their lives, and even killing hard working people like those miners and oil rig workers? How long will we allow corporations to control our government, our country and our people? How long?

[greencharlie]

36. actually it's more the Greece bailout, the IMF... nt

[SharonRB]

2. Holy crap!

The last time I looked -- about a half hour ago -- it was "only" down 200 and something. This is insane! And, of course, I have three days left at my job. What a lousy time for a crash. I'll probably be rolling over my 401(k) soon and I'm taking a big hit today -- much bigger than I had expected and it was bad enough already.

[Ilsa]

3. Loss is now under 500 pts. Let's hope it was a temporary panic and

it will recover before COB today.

[kirby]

4. Judging by all the duplicate threads, yes. n/t

[seabeyond]

5. why? as in what happened out there in the world. nt

[NeedleCast]

18. Greek Financial Crisis

Well, that's the basis for it. A huge part of the plunge today was computer triggered selling where programs begin to shed shares based on what the market is doing. Its a relativly new and very dangerous game. Luckily, the market recovered more than half of it's loss after noon.

[seabeyond]

23. ah, thanks. i thought might be greek, but that started a day or two ago

man... you are a wealth of info.

i am wary of any of the "new" game in town. uh oh

[NeedleCast]

27. You might have had a good day based on our conversation in earlier thread

As stocks dove off the cliff thanks to computer-based trading, lots of investors ran for the safety of US Treasury funds. If, as you said earlier, you've got a good portion of your assets in relativly low risk areas like treasury funds, you might see a nice little bump.

" Meanwhile, interest rates on Treasurys soared as investors sought the safety of U.S. government debt"

I suspect the market will bounce all over the place for a few days. I wouldn't be surprised to see a 200 point gain tomorrow. Wouldnt be surprised to see a 400 point loss either. Either way, long term investors should just enjoy the roller coaster (and the images of pastey, moderately overweight people in suits running around the exchange floor looking like they're about to fill their pants).

[Statistical]

29. "Meanwhile, interest rates on Treasurys soared as investors sought the safety of U.S. government"

This sentence makes no sense. More buying pushes down US treasuries. More demand for same amount of supply of debt.

[NeedleCast]

30. Quoted from Yahoo Article

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Treasurys-soar-on-Europes-cnnm-148655663.html?x=0

The price to buy U.S. debt spiked quickly Thursday afternoon, as the stock market tumbled nearly 1,000 points and investors funneled money into lower-risk securities as massive protests against Greece's bailout turned violent in Athens.

What prices are doing: The benchmark 10-year note rose 1-13/32 to 102-2/32, pushing the yield down to 3.38%.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. The 30-year bond rallied 3-19/32 to 107-16/32 with a 4.18% yield. The 2-year note rose to 100-15/32 with a 0.78% yield. The 5-year note gained to 101-26/32, yielding 2.12%

[Statistical]

32. That quotes is correct.

The benchmark 10-year note ... pushing the yield down to 3.38%.

This quote is not:
"Meanwhile, interest rates on Treasurys soared as investors sought the safety of U.S. government"

More demand for treasuries results in LOWER rates not higher ones.

The converse is also true. Nobody wants Greek bonds right now so the RATES are RISING (soaring) not falling.

It makes no sense to say investor sought (increased demand) = interest rates soared (higher rates).

[NeedleCast]

33. First Quote was from a previous article which seems to have been pulled

At least I can't find it anymore.

Sorry for any confusion.

[Statistical]

34. No problem. Just othe rpeople might be confused by the incorrect statement.

Obviously the original author caught the mistake.

More Demand and/or Less Supply = higher face price = lower rate
Less Demand and/or More Supply = lower face price = higher rate

[vsaxenaster]

38. It's back!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100507/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wall_street;_ylt=AsEbQQwEyxMiQ4vLUj8zqgKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNlanVmdGRrBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNTA3L3VzX3dhbGxfc3RyZWV0BGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDd2FsbHN0cm9sbGVy

What is going on here!
"
"Meanwhile, interest rates on Treasurys soared as traders sought the safety of U.S. government debt." (And I'm pretty sure it should say Treasuries (not Treasurys")!)

[Statistical]

42. Journalism is dead.

Treasury prices soared which mean interest rates declined as traders sought safety of US govt debt.

There was a time when news outlets had editors and actually cared about the quality of their reporting.

[NotThisTime]

20. Panic attack over Greece debt

[seabeyond]

24. appreciate it. nt

[cbdo2007]

6. I heard on DU that it'll probably go down to 6,000 soon...

[onenote]

17. Some folks here have been predicting that ever since it got up to 8000.

Just think how great you'd feel if you had sold when it was 8000. Not.

BTW, I'm not advising anyone whether to get in, get out, buy, or sell. Anyone who looks to DU for advice on how to invest their money is a fool for doing so, imo.

[cbdo2007]

22. I know....I wanted to be the idiot doing it this time....kinda fun :)

Yes only fools sell at the bottom. The charts show that it ALWAYS comes back.

[TheWatcher]

39. Of COURSE. When you have a completely rigged, artificially manipulated Casino, it always comes back

And then The Bubble Collapses, the wealth is transferred from the Proles to the Wall Street, Wall Street gets bailed out and PROMISES not to do it again, and the cycle starts again, much like it has for the past fifteen years.

The American People have been programmed to think Bubble Economics is normal, and made up of naturally occurring Market forces.

It's quite fascinating to watch this festival of ignorance play out.

[gmoney]

7. Yikes.

[spinbaby]

9. What caused that sudden plunge?

It just suddenly tanked.

[kirby]

12. Investigation needed...

Something very strange (program trading, manipulation, error) happened.

[Statistical]

13. Program trading.

Many larger brokerages has large and complex program trades which link computers watching for triggers to billions in assets.

So when you see a down day like today where we were down 2%+ before the drop those programs kick in and generate a massive amount of selling pressure which pushes market down which kicks in program trading from more institutions, etc. You see a compounding effect.

At down 1000 you saw buying program trades kick in and started evening out buying and selling pressure. There are circuit breakers that halt trading after 10% move in major indexes so down 992 is pretty much buying near the bottom for the day.

The amount of flow these computers can generate is staggering and they can overwhelm the indexes in a very large move.

[taught_me_patience]

25. You saw computers run by the government kick in

and buy to save the market.

[Statistical]

26. Sure. LOL.

Guess you bought all the way down that slide?
I mean it would be impossible to lose given the ultra-secret govt trading program would push market back up.

Nice work on your 4% gain in a matter of minutes. Oh wait you didn't just like the uber market controlling govt supercomputer doesn't exist either.

[killbotfactory]

21. There are concerns with EU countries failing, starting with Greece

The conservative government in Greece ran up the debt, while hiding it with the help of financial institutions like Goldman Sachs. In Greece there is popular resistance to new austerity measures being imposed upon them, as well as a belief in the financial world that it will just delay the inevitable. They don't see a way out for Greece to avoid bankruptcy.

There are fears this kind of trouble will spread to Spain, Portugal, Italy and maybe more countries. So it's causing a panic.

[Andy823]

10. I looked about 10 minutes ago it was over 600 points down

Now I went back it was around 400 points down. It's going like a yo-yo! Those who bought at rock bottom prices are selling while the selling is high, but I think they will also come back in and buy up stocks again once the price go down low enough for them to do the same thing over again, buy low, sell high!

[JuniperLea]

11. System glitch?

Some auto-trade got a decimal point off in one calculation? WTF? This is really weird... this is far more strange than the drop two years ago.

[ecstatic]

14. They (the investors) do this to themselves

The armchair stockbrokers panic and then the calm people buy up at cheaper prices.

[azmouse]

15. My financial advicer predicted this about two weeks ago.

He said there would be financial unrest in Greece that would cause the US market to adjust... a lot.

[complain jane]

40. Sixteen billion dollars momentarily vanished from the stock market, basically.

The whole thing happened in about five minutes. Down 900 points and then back up.

It seems like it started out with Greece but then something went nuts.

I've heard a couple different theories from a clerical error, or somebody figured out how to game the market to profit from it, or more complex theories that are legit but are way over my head.

The way things have been going lately to be honest I assume some ultra high volume trader figured out how to tank the market to profit from it and a lot of people lost a fortune in the blink of an eye.

[pscot]

19. Oil is down to $76 & change

while gold is over $1200. The Euro is in freefall.

[Liberal_in_LA]

28. I missed the plunge. This Greek thing is getting scary

[librechik]

37. UPDATE: Plunge cause by clerical error

http://www.cnbc.com/id/36999483

seriously, somebody wrote a billion instead of a million and then corrected the error. Boomerangggg!

[Born_A_Truman]

41. Guy on Rachel said somebody fat fingered a transaction

Yikes!