Blood Bathes all over the world!!!!!

[Venom]

سجلت البورصات في مختلف انحاء العالم امس هبوطا حادا وصفه خبراء ماليون بانه (حمامات دم مالية)، واعتبروه الاسوأ منذ سنوات. وشهدت بورصات اوروبا واسيا واميركا اللاتينية انخفاضا بنسبة سبعة بالمئة بعد ان سارع المستثمرون الى البيع بسبب الخوف من انكماش الاقتصاد العالمي.
وكان السوق المالي الاميركي (وول ستريت) مغلقا امس بسبب عطلة وطنية، ولكن البورصات في كل مكان اخر من القارة شهدت اسوأ يوم لها منذ سنوات. وقال محلل اقتصادي (ان الشيء الذي رأيناه اليوم (امس) هو نقص الرغبة في الشراء. الناس يحمون انفسهم تحسبا لمواجهة الصعوبات وهم يرون ما يحدث في الولايات المتحدة). وتسببت ازمة القروض العقارية المرتفعة المخاطر في الولايات المتحدة في انعكاسات سلبية على الاقتصاد العالمي، حيث ارتفعت نسبة البطالة وانخفض سعر الدولار.


وحذر رئيس صندوق النقد الدولي دومينيك ستراوس-كاهن من ان (كافة دول العالم تعاني حاليا من تباطؤ النمو الذي تشهده الولايات المتحدة).
وانخفضت اسعار النفط بسبب تزايد المخاوف من انخفاض الطلب على الطاقة بسبب ضعف الاقتصاد الاميركي، حسب المحللين. وخسر نفط نيويورك الخفيف 76،1 من قيمته ليصل سعر البرميل الى 81،88 دولار.
اما سعر الدولار فقد شهد ارتفاعا قويا مقابل اليورو. ويقول المتعاملون ان المستثمرين الذين كانوا يشترون العملات ذات الارباح العالية اصبحوا يخفضون من تعاملاتهم تلك مما افاد الدولار الذي لا يزال يتمتع بوصفه ملاذا امنا.
الا ان البورصات العالمية لم تكن ملاذا امنا للمستثمرين.
ومما زاد من التوتر في اسواق اوروبا واميركا الهبوط الذي شهدته اسواق اسيا في وقت سابق امس، حيث اغلق مؤشر سوق طوكيو على خسارة جسيمة بلغت 86،3 بالمئة، ليصل الى اخفض مستوياته منذ تشرين الاول .2005
وجاء هبوط الاسواق كرد فعل على اعلان بوش الجمعة خططا لخفض ضريبي مؤقت قيمته 140 مليار دولار وغيرها من الاجراءات التي تهدف للحيلولة دون انكماش اكبر اقتصاد في العالم.
البورصات الاوروبية
وتراجع كل من المؤشرين كاك - 40 لبورصة باريس وداكس لبورصة فرانكفورت حوالى 5%. وقد انخفض مؤشر داكس الى ما دون السبعة الاف نقطة بينما كانت سوق المال الالمانية متضررة جدا بالخسائر الجسيمة التي سجلتها الاسهم المصرفية. وكانت المرة الاخيرة التي انخفضت فيها البورصة الى ما دون 7000 نقطة في اذار .2007
وفي باريس تراجع كاك - 40 الى ما دون الخمسة الاف نقطة، العتبة التي لم ينخفض اليها منذ آب .2006
وكانت بورصة باريس سجلت عند افتتاح الجلسة اكبر تراجع بلغت نسبته 3% بينما تراجعت بورصة لندن 2.2%.
الاسواق الخليجية
كذلك انهار المؤشر في السوق المالية السعودية امس، في ما وصفه بعض المحللين الماليين بانه هزة تاريخية لم يشهدها السوق منذ مدة، وقد اقفل خاسرا 861 نقطة.
وفي دبي تفاقمت الخسائر في السوق المالي حتى بلغت 192 نقطة تقريبا، تعادل 3.17 في المائة من قيمة المؤشر الذي اقفل عند مستوى 5868 نقطة.
وسجلت التداولات في دبي تراجعا الى مستوى 2.4 مليار درهم مقابل 491 مليون سهم، تم تبادلها من خلال 12279 صفقة.
ولم تكن حال سوق ابوظبي افضل من دبي، اذ خسر المؤشر 151 نقطة تعادل 3.12 في المئة من قيمته، ليغلق منحدرا الى مستوى 4691 نقطة. وتراجعت التداولات الى ما دون مستوى المليار درهم، لتصل الى 907 ملايين درهم مقابل 182 مليون سهم، تم تبادلها من خلال 5149 صفقة.

[Venom]

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The Federal Reserve Board, citing a weakening economic outlook, Tuesday cut its target for the federal funds rate 75 basis points to 3.5%.

The Fed's rate cut was highly unusual ahead of a scheduled meeting next week; it followed a broad selloff in overseas stock markets. In a statement, the Fed said it took this action "in view of a weakening of the economic outlook and increasing downside risks to growth."

"While strains in short-term funding markets have eased somewhat, broader financial market conditions have continued to deteriorate and credit has tightened further for some businesses and households," the Fed said.

In the past several days, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has pledged to enact "substantive" rate cuts if needed to counter the threat to the economy posed by fragile financial markets and weakening employment.

The Fed acted amid turmoil in the overseas markets. Before the cut, U.S. stock futures were pointing to losses of roughly 4% in the stock markets after two days of huge selling in overseas markets on fears over a U.S. recession.

Until the broad selloff overseas Monday, Fed watchers were expecting the central bank to reduce its short-term interest-rate target - probably by a half-percentage point from its current 4.25% - at the central bank's next meeting. It has already lowered the fed-funds rate by 100 basis points since September.

The Fed's statement showed it expected economic turmoil to continue.

"Moreover, incoming information indicates a deepening of the housing contraction as well as some softening in labor markets," the Fed said.

The Fed said it expects inflation to moderate in coming quarters, "but it will be necessary to continue to monitor inflation developments carefully."

The Fed said it expects inflation to moderate in coming quarters, "but it will be necessary to continue to monitor inflation developments carefully."

The Fed's statement said "appreciable downside risks to growth remain."

The Fed's interest rate-setting panel "will continue to assess the effects of financial and other developments on economic prospects and will act in a timely manner as needed to address those risks."

The Fed said those voting for the interest rate cut were Chairman Ben Bernanke; Timothy F. Geithner, vice chairman; Charles L. Evans; Thomas M. Hoenig; Donald L. Kohn; Randall S. Kroszner; Eric S. Rosengren and Kevin M. Warsh.

Fed Gov. William Poole voted against it, saying he didn't believe that current conditions justified policy action before the regularly scheduled meeting next week. Gov. Frederic S. Mishkin was absent.

In a related move, the Fed board also approved a 75-basis-point decrease in the discount rate to 4%.

-By Rob Wells, Dow Jones Newswires

[Venom]

How could we miss the signs!!!


Stocks are on track for their worst year since 1937


WASHINGTON — Fear and foreboding took hold Thursday on Wall Street, as the market again plunged and investors became convinced that the nation is on the verge of a deep and prolonged recession. The decline continued in Asia, where stocks plummeted in early trading today.

The government took steps toward an extraordinary public investment in U.S. banks and General Motors' stock fell to its lowest price since 1950 on fears it will not be able to weather the downturn. Share prices fell across every industry and for each of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average, which was down 678.91, or 7.3 percent, at 8,579.19. The declines came on the one-year anniversary of the Dow's closing high.

"I've never seen a panic like this," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's. "I've seen stock market drops, but not an overall panic."

The plunge came in a stomach-churning 90 minutes. The Dow was down just 140 points in the early afternoon. But then, wave after wave of selling began to roll through the market.

Stocks are on track for their worst year since 1937.

"It's a domino effect. Stocks are falling out of bed. There is distrust in the market and distrust in the government that is trying to heal this," said Peter Cardillo, economist with New York-based Avalon Partners.

Continuing its efforts to stanch the damage, the Bush administration said Thursday that it is working on a plan to inject government cash into some of the nation's troubled banks. Meanwhile, global economic policymakers are gathering in Washington today for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings, and will try to find coordinated responses.

President Bush is scheduled to make a statement about the crisis this morning in the Rose Garden, the White House said late Thursday. He also will take the unusual step of meeting with finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized countries Saturday.

Press secretary Dana Perino said Bush would "assure the American people that they should be confident that economic officials are aggressively taking every action to stabilize our financial system."

While the stock market was the most visible sign of the distress, a more significant one may have been a rise in interest rates for short-term lending among banks. The spike came despite Wednesday's cut in the target interest rate of the world's major central banks, suggesting that banks are more fearful than ever of lending to each other.

Credit markets provided modest good news, however, as the interest rates dropped on commercial paper, a form of debt that companies use to finance short-term cash flow. The Federal Reserve announced a new program to take on that debt Tuesday.

Some of the worst damage was among U.S. automakers. J.D. Power and Associates said that the global auto industry may experience an "outright collapse" in 2009. Then the S&P Ratings Agency put GM debt on a credit watch. GM stock fell 31 percent to $4.76, its lowest since 1950, and Ford stock was down 22 percent.

No market patience
Investors have become frustrated that the government's efforts to tackle the financial crisis, including plans to buy up billions in toxic mortgage debt and a global interest rate cut, have yet to loosen the credit markets.

The problem seems to be that many of the government actions, such as the $700 billion U.S. financial system bailout passed a week ago, take time to go into effect. "These programs take weeks if not months to implement, and the market is responding within minutes," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.

Meanwhile, darker clouds have moved to new parts of the economy. Trouble in sectors like steel production and heavy machinery, which until recently were growing strongly, has contributed to the mounting view that the U.S. economy has tumbled into a significant recession. Economists predict that the economy will contract until the middle of 2009.

There is a bright spot for American consumers: Oil prices also continued a steep two-month decline Thursday, falling $2.36 to settle at $86.59 a barrel as traders bet that the slowing global economy will reduce demand for energy worldwide.

But even that was bad news for the stock market, as energy shares fell. Exxon Mobil and Chevron each fell 12 percent.

Consumers have cut back sharply on spending, in what will be the first quarterly decline in 17 years when the government tally is in for the third quarter.

To offset this shrinkage, the Democratic leadership in Congress is "seriously considering" a large fiscal stimulus proposal, which would send a significant amount of money to states and cities. "We have to prop up consumption," Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview.

The new proposal would be far greater than the $60 billion stimulus package that the House passed in September, Frank said. The Senate has not acted on the earlier bill, which was dwarfed in attention and scope by the sums being pledged to Wall Street companies and commercial banks.

Some attribute Thursday's market plunge to mutual funds' waiting until mid-afternoon to execute sell orders from a growing number of investors who are cutting their exposure or bailing out of the market altogether. Others say that hedge funds, which have leveraged returns in recent years by using borrowed money, are having to sell holdings to raise collateral against their borrowings.

Still others say that computerized trading, which has grown significantly in recent years, often kicks in later in the day, when certain thresholds are breached.

Short-selling
What happened on Thursday partly reflects the unintended consequences of regulators' attempts to bolster stock prices several weeks ago, when the Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily banned short-selling in nearly 1,000 stocks. That restriction was lifted at midnight on Wednesday. Short-selling is a practice in which investors sell shares they do not own in the hopes of buying them back later at a lower price. Many money managers use it to hedge their investments against future losses. Analysts said those investors were probably forced to sell shares short Thursday to protect themselves.

Robert Solow, who won a Nobel Prize in 1987 for his work on economic growth, said the "potential for instability was always there" but he is surprised at the magnitude of the problems. "I'm as puzzled as anyone else," he said. "I don't have any particular wisdom to sell."

The New York Times contributed to this report.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by Venom

How could we miss the signs!!!

Greed

........

[Diabolo_7]

Originally Posted by Venom

How could we miss the signs!!!


Stocks are on track for their worst year since 1937


WASHINGTON — Fear and foreboding took hold Thursday on Wall Street, as the market again plunged and investors became convinced that the nation is on the verge of a deep and prolonged recession. The decline continued in Asia, where stocks plummeted in early trading today.

The government took steps toward an extraordinary public investment in U.S. banks and General Motors' stock fell to its lowest price since 1950 on fears it will not be able to weather the downturn. Share prices fell across every industry and for each of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average, which was down 678.91, or 7.3 percent, at 8,579.19. The declines came on the one-year anniversary of the Dow's closing high.

"I've never seen a panic like this," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's. "I've seen stock market drops, but not an overall panic."

The plunge came in a stomach-churning 90 minutes. The Dow was down just 140 points in the early afternoon. But then, wave after wave of selling began to roll through the market.

Stocks are on track for their worst year since 1937.

"It's a domino effect. Stocks are falling out of bed. There is distrust in the market and distrust in the government that is trying to heal this," said Peter Cardillo, economist with New York-based Avalon Partners.

Continuing its efforts to stanch the damage, the Bush administration said Thursday that it is working on a plan to inject government cash into some of the nation's troubled banks. Meanwhile, global economic policymakers are gathering in Washington today for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings, and will try to find coordinated responses.

President Bush is scheduled to make a statement about the crisis this morning in the Rose Garden, the White House said late Thursday. He also will take the unusual step of meeting with finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized countries Saturday.

Press secretary Dana Perino said Bush would "assure the American people that they should be confident that economic officials are aggressively taking every action to stabilize our financial system."

While the stock market was the most visible sign of the distress, a more significant one may have been a rise in interest rates for short-term lending among banks. The spike came despite Wednesday's cut in the target interest rate of the world's major central banks, suggesting that banks are more fearful than ever of lending to each other.

Credit markets provided modest good news, however, as the interest rates dropped on commercial paper, a form of debt that companies use to finance short-term cash flow. The Federal Reserve announced a new program to take on that debt Tuesday.

Some of the worst damage was among U.S. automakers. J.D. Power and Associates said that the global auto industry may experience an "outright collapse" in 2009. Then the S&P Ratings Agency put GM debt on a credit watch. GM stock fell 31 percent to $4.76, its lowest since 1950, and Ford stock was down 22 percent.

No market patience
Investors have become frustrated that the government's efforts to tackle the financial crisis, including plans to buy up billions in toxic mortgage debt and a global interest rate cut, have yet to loosen the credit markets.

The problem seems to be that many of the government actions, such as the $700 billion U.S. financial system bailout passed a week ago, take time to go into effect. "These programs take weeks if not months to implement, and the market is responding within minutes," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.

Meanwhile, darker clouds have moved to new parts of the economy. Trouble in sectors like steel production and heavy machinery, which until recently were growing strongly, has contributed to the mounting view that the U.S. economy has tumbled into a significant recession. Economists predict that the economy will contract until the middle of 2009.

There is a bright spot for American consumers: Oil prices also continued a steep two-month decline Thursday, falling $2.36 to settle at $86.59 a barrel as traders bet that the slowing global economy will reduce demand for energy worldwide.

But even that was bad news for the stock market, as energy shares fell. Exxon Mobil and Chevron each fell 12 percent.

Consumers have cut back sharply on spending, in what will be the first quarterly decline in 17 years when the government tally is in for the third quarter.

To offset this shrinkage, the Democratic leadership in Congress is "seriously considering" a large fiscal stimulus proposal, which would send a significant amount of money to states and cities. "We have to prop up consumption," Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview.

The new proposal would be far greater than the $60 billion stimulus package that the House passed in September, Frank said. The Senate has not acted on the earlier bill, which was dwarfed in attention and scope by the sums being pledged to Wall Street companies and commercial banks.

Some attribute Thursday's market plunge to mutual funds' waiting until mid-afternoon to execute sell orders from a growing number of investors who are cutting their exposure or bailing out of the market altogether. Others say that hedge funds, which have leveraged returns in recent years by using borrowed money, are having to sell holdings to raise collateral against their borrowings.

Still others say that computerized trading, which has grown significantly in recent years, often kicks in later in the day, when certain thresholds are breached.

Short-selling
What happened on Thursday partly reflects the unintended consequences of regulators' attempts to bolster stock prices several weeks ago, when the Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily banned short-selling in nearly 1,000 stocks. That restriction was lifted at midnight on Wednesday. Short-selling is a practice in which investors sell shares they do not own in the hopes of buying them back later at a lower price. Many money managers use it to hedge their investments against future losses. Analysts said those investors were probably forced to sell shares short Thursday to protect themselves.

Robert Solow, who won a Nobel Prize in 1987 for his work on economic growth, said the "potential for instability was always there" but he is surprised at the magnitude of the problems. "I'm as puzzled as anyone else," he said. "I don't have any particular wisdom to sell."

The New York Times contributed to this report.

Excellent News

I didnt know that there were 679 points left

[Rors]

Robert Fisk's World: Financial doom and gloom is everywhere – except Lebanon

Beirut’s Blombank has just boasted a record 34 per cent rise in profits

Saturday, 25 October 2008


A monster roars all day – and much of the evening – next to my Beirut home.


My landlord Mustafa sits in his little soft drinks store downstairs with his fingers in his ears. I work in The Independent's office, windows tight shut, as a slurry of fine powder pours below the frame, coating archives and books, laptop and printer (and Fisk), with a patina of brown, greasy dust. Yes, I have a building site right next door, where diggers roar in an effort to build a spanking new twin-towers apartment complex. All over Beirut, it's the same, the skyline constantly transformed by housing projects and high-rise office blocks. Yup, that's right. In Lebanon, in a country whose name is still synonymous with war – and in a world where capitalism is enduring a collapse of biblical proportions – business is booming.

Now readers, I am not – I am absolutely not – advising you to invest in this little statelet, with its sectarian government and mass graves and squalid Palestinian refugee camps. I am not an economist. At school, I failed O-level maths three times and as a result lost an offered place at Liverpool University. But someone needs to explain to me how this little Middle Eastern cabbage patch is bouncing along so happily amid the cyclones ripping through the world's economy.

Beirut's Blombank has just boasted a record 34 per cent rise in profits in the first three quarters of this year. The chairman of Audi Saradar Bank, who happens to be minister for the displaced in the Lebanese government, says that Lebanon is expected to record its highest GDP growth in many years. House prices continue to soar. And this in a nation that suffers a $45.5bn public debt. So out came the little leather-covered Fisk notebook this week to garner words of Lebanese wisdom from the men (few women) who know the secrets of the country's financial miracle. Well, it turns out the Audi bank did lose about $20m with Lehman Brothers but made a hair's-breadth escape from the Wachovia collapse because the maturity date on its $200m deposit investment fell on 3 October. In all, Lebanon's 58 banks made about $750m profit this year. And why does this money look so safe? Because three years ago, the Lebanese Central Bank forbade all commercial banks to go into derivatives. Not one Lebanese bank made any investments in US sub-prime mortgages. Commercial banks, in fact, are prohibited from making real estate investments anywhere outside Lebanon.

Lebanon, of course, has no oil – or has it? Back in 1976, when Ghassan Tueni was minister of petroleum, most of the world's oil conglomerates showed interest to explore parcels of sea-bed off the coast between Batroun and the northern city of Tripoli. But the day Lebanon was to open offices for the bids in Tripoli, fighting broke out there between Syria and the Palestinians, embracing the very area where staff would be working. Then in 1980, Lebanese economist Marwan Iskander suggested to then President Elias Sarkis that the exploration bids should be opened again. Iskander offered a large Cuban cigar when he told me the Sarkis story. For some reason, all Lebanese smoke cigars when they are talking about financial folly.

"When I made my suggestion, Sarkis turned to me and said: 'Look Marwan, the Lebanese are crazy without oil. If we get oil, they'll go out of their minds! Anyway, if we did find oil, the Syrians are not going to allow us to export it.'" Today, the Syrians have – politically – returned to Lebanon and the Siniora government is in no hurry to discover oil reserves under the Mediterranean.

But the Lebanese may have a commodity as wealthy as oil: it is the only country in the world that has 35-40 per cent of its population working abroad, and they are sending home about $7.5bn a year. Lebanon has also received $1.3bn of its $7.6bn Paris aid commitments – which will total $7.6bn after Lebanese government reforms. Not to be mentioned, by the way, is the estimated $1bn which the Hizbollah militia receives from Iran each year. So much for America's ability to "staunch the flow of money to terrorist organisations".

As for the public debt, no problem. At least $24bn of the $45.4bn is in foreign currency and $21bn in Lebanese currency. But 80 per cent of the foreign debt is held by Lebanese banks or individual Lebanese businessmen who have no interest in taking their own country into bankruptcy; they are quite happy to go on taking their massive interest payments. As for the internal debt, Siniora can print more money if anything goes wrong.

Phew, that's the first time I've ploughed into the profit and loss of this strange country. In the hell-disaster of the Middle East, it's almost comical to find that Lebanon – politically, a Rolls-Royce without wheels – manages to make ends meet. Should the world learn anything from this? Next time we meet, I told Iskander on Thursday, he can define a "derivative" for me. "No," he said, "you can explain it to me!"

How do the Lebanese do it? By being optimistic. Surprisingly, few of them know T S Eliot's dark warning to their ancestors, the Phoenicians. In "Death by Water", he wrote: "Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,/ Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell/ And the profit and loss./ A current under sea/Picked his bones in whispers/ ...O you who turn to the wheel and look to windward,/Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you."

But who in Beirut cares about Phlebas under the Mediterranean? The day may come when the Lebanese can find, richer, darker treasures beneath his bones.

Source


P.S: Thanks Layyouss for the article