SEC puts in new ‘circuit breaker’ rules

SEC puts into place new ‘circuit breaker’ rules to prevent repeat of May 6 stock market plunge

Marcy Gordon, AP Business Writer, On Thursday June 10, 2010, 5:44 pm EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators on Thursday put in place new rules aimed at preventing a repeat of last month’s harrowing “flash crash” in the stock market.

Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the rules, which call for U.S. stock exchanges to briefly halt trading of some stocks that make big swings.

The major exchanges will start putting the trading breaks into effect as early as Friday for six months. The New York Stock Exchange will begin Friday’s trading session with five stocks: EOG Resources Inc., Genuine Parts Co., Harley Davidson Inc., Ryder System Inc. and Zimmer Holdings Inc. The exchange will gradually add other stocks early next week, expecting to reach by Wednesday the full number that will be covered.

The Nasdaq stock market plans to have the new program fully in place on Monday.

The plan for the “circuit breakers” was worked out by the SEC and the major exchanges following the May 6 market plunge, which saw the Dow Jones industrials lose nearly 1,000 points in less than a half-hour.

Under the new rules, trading of any Standard & Poor’s 500 stock that rises or falls 10 percent or more in a five-minute period will be halted for five minutes. The “circuit breakers” would be applied if the price swing occurs between 9:45 a.m. and 3:35 p.m. Eastern time. That’s almost the entire trading day. But it leaves out the final 25 minutes before the close — a period that often sees raging price swings, especially in recent weeks as the kind of volatility that marked the 2008 financial crisis returned.

The idea is for the trading pause to draw attention to an affected stock, establish a reasonable market price and resume trading “in a fair and orderly fashion,” the SEC said.

On May 6, about 30 stocks listed in the S&P 500 index fell at least 10 percent within five minutes. The drop briefly wiped out $1 trillion in market value as some stocks traded as low as a penny.

The disruption “illustrated a sudden, but temporary, breakdown in the market’s price-setting function when a number of stocks and (exchange-traded funds) were executed at clearly irrational prices,” SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said in a statement. “By establishing a set of circuit breakers that uniformly pauses trading in a given security across all venues, these new rules will ensure that all markets pause simultaneously and provide time for buyers and sellers to trade at rational prices.”

Bailout, Indeed: Dow Up 404

By DONNA KARDOS YESALAVICH And KRISTINA PETERSON
Reuters

Stocks posted their biggest one-day gain in more than a year, boosted by the bailout package to stem Europe’s credit crisis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 404.71 points, or 3.9%, to 10785.14, helped by gains in all 30 of its components. The average had its biggest one-day gain in both point and percentage terms since March 23, 2009.

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 4.4% to 1159.73, led by its financial and consumer-discretionary sectors, up more than 5% each. All the broad measure’s other indexes posted gains as well.

The jump in U.S. stocks followed rallies in the Asian and European markets after the European Union agreed to a €750 billion ($954.83 billion) bailout, including €440 billion of loans from euro-zone governments., €60 billion from a European Union emergency fund and €250 billion from the International Monetary Fund.

In further coordinated efforts to assuage spooked markets, the European Central Bank will go into the secondary market to buy euro-zone national bonds—a step last week that its president, Jean-Claude Trichet, said the central bank didn’t even contemplate. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve, working with other central banks, re-activated swap lines so foreign institutions can get access to loans.

“This bailout plan really avoided the worst-case scenario—it avoided contagion and the domino effect,” said Cort Gwon, director of trading strategies of FBN Securities. The package also shifts investors’ attention back to the U.S., where most economic yardsticks have been improving lately, he noted.

The Nasdaq Composite jumped 109.03 points, its first triple-digit point gain since October 2008. It closed at 2374.67, up 4.8%.

Trading volume was higher than the 2010 daily average, though below the frenzied pace of the previous two days, which included an unprecedented “flash crash” and traders’ scramble to square their books after certain trades were canceled. On Monday, composite New York Stock Exchange volume hit 7.1 billion shares, below last week’s peak near 11 billion.

U.S.-listed shares of European banks surged in reaction to the European Union’s bailout plan.

Dow closes above 10,000 for 1st time in a year

DJ comeback: Stock market’s best-known barometer closes above 10,000 for 1st time in a year

By Sara Lepro and Tim Paradis, AP Business Writers
5:08 pm EDT, Wednesday October 14, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) — When the Dow Jones industrial average first passed 10,000, traders tossed commemorative caps and uncorked champagne. This time around, the feeling was more like relief.

The best-known barometer of the stock market entered five-figure territory again Wednesday, the most visible sign yet that investors believe the economy is clawing its way back from the worst downturn since the Depression.

The milestone caps a stunning 53 percent comeback for the Dow since early March, when stocks were at their lowest levels in more than a decade.

“It’s almost like an announcement that the bear market is over,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. (JEF) in Boston. “That is an eye-opener — ‘Hey, you know what, things must be getting better because the Dow is over 10,000.'”

Cheers went up briefly when the Dow eclipsed the milestone in the early afternoon, during a daylong rally driven by encouraging earnings reports from Intel Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) The average closed at 10,015.86, up 144.80 points.

It was the first time the Dow had touched 10,000 since October 2008, that time on the way down.

“I think there were times when we were in the deep part of the trough there back in the springtime when it felt like we’d never get back to this level,” said Bernie McSherry, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Cuttone & Co.

Ethan Harris, head of North America economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAC), described it as a “relief rally that the world is not coming to an end.”

The mood was far from the euphoria of March 1999, when the Dow surpassed 10,000 for the first time. The Internet then was driving extraordinary gains in productivity, and serious people debated whether there was such a thing as a boom without end.

“If this is a bubble,” The Wall Street Journal marveled on its front page, “it sure is hard to pop.”

It did pop, of course. And then came the lost decade.

In sign of strength, S&P 500 breaks past 1,000 as Wall Street rally blows into August

By Sara Lepro and Tim Paradis, AP Business Writers
Monday August 3, 2009, 6:02 pm EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Standard & Poor’s 500 index (SPX) is four digits again now that the stock market’s rally has blown into August.

The widely followed stock market measure broke above 1,000 on Monday for the first time in nine months as reports on manufacturing, construction and banking sent investors more signals that the economy is gathering strength. The S&P is used as a benchmark by professional investors, and it’s also the foundation for mutual funds in many individual 401(k) accounts.

Wall Street’s big indexes all rose more than 1 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), which climbed 115 points.

The market extended its summer rally on the type of news that might have seemed unthinkable when stocks cratered to 12-year lows in early March. A trade group predicted U.S. manufacturing activity will grow next month, the government said construction spending rose in June and Ford Motor Co. (F) said its sales rose last month for the first time in nearly two years.

“The market is beginning to smell economic recovery,” said Howard Ward, portfolio manager of GAMCO Growth Fund. “It may be too early to declare victory, but we are well on our way.”

The day’s reports were the latest indications that the recession that began in December 2007 could be retreating. Better corporate earnings reports and economic data propelled the Dow Jones industrial average 725 points in July to its best month in nearly seven years and restarted spring rally that had stalled in June.

On Monday, a report from the Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, signaled U.S. manufacturing activity should increase next month for the first time since January 2008 as industrial companies restock shelves. Also, the Commerce Department said construction spending rose rather than fell in June as analysts had expected. The reports and rising commodity prices lifted energy and material stocks.

Ford said sales of light vehicles rose 1.6 percent in July. Other major automakers said they saw signs of stability in sales. Investors predicted that the government’s popular cash for clunkers program would boost overall auto sales to their highest level of the year.

A Generational Opportunity

by Jim O’Shaughnessy
Tuesday, March 17, 2009

“The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word ‘crisis.’ One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger – but recognize the opportunity.” -John F. Kennedy

I recently had dinner with a client who told me that stocks had not performed well over the last 40 years. At first I suspected that she was generalizing from the recent pummeling equity markets have experienced — after all, this is a time frame that included two of the biggest bull markets in history! Yet, when I went to the data, I found out that she was absolutely right. The 40 years ending February 2009 were the second worst 40-year period for equities since 1900, with only the 40 years ending December 1941 doing worse!

Let’s put this into perspective. The 40 years ending in 1941 included the stock market panic of 1907, which drove down the Dow Jones Industrial Average nearly 38 percent; the World War I Era, where the period between 1910 and 1919 was one of the worst ever for stocks; AND, oh yes, the Great Depression. Finally, icing on the 40-year cake, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. How could these last 40 years even begin to match that? Alas, they did.

The chart on the left is a histogram of the average annual real returns for U.S. equities (large stocks) for all 40-year holding periods, with annual data starting in 1900 and monthly data beginning in 1926. There were only three 40-year periods where U.S. stocks returned less than four percent annually — the 40 years ending December 1941, where they earned a real rate of return of 3.80 percent annually for the previous 40 years; the 40 years ending February 2009 where they earned 3.86 percent annually; and the 40 years ending December 1942, where stocks returned 3.92 percent a year. Keep in mind that’s just 0.55 percent of the 545 periods analyzed. We are talking about an event so rare, that most of us alive today will never see such an opportunity again.

The histogram also shows the norm — stocks returned between 6 and 8 percent a year for 353 periods, or nearly 65 percent of all of the 40-year periods analyzed. Looked at closely, you see that 99.45 percent of all  observed 40-year periods, U.S. stocks enjoyed a real rate of return between 4 and 12 percent a year, and that we are now presented with a huge generational opportunity.

Reversion to the Mean: Short, Medium and Long Term

Let’s look at what happened with U.S. stocks the first time they earned less than 4 percent a year for a 40-year period. For the five-, ten-, and twenty-year periods following the nadir reached in 1941, here are the real average annual compound returns for a variety of U.S. stock categories:

Markets move above the 50 day moving averages

Aggressive action by the Federal Reserve today pushed most markets above their respective simple 50 day moving averages for the first time since September.  We have highlighted the 50 day as resistance level number one in prior notes and have shown it to be critical resistance along with the 200 day and 80 week.  This is a primary step to recovery and opens the door to a potential challenge of the 200 day near the beginning of 2009.

A rally to the 200 day would be quite significant as the recent violent plunge has opened up a large gap over the 50 day.  A similar test of the 200 day as resistance came in early 2002, though the gap was not as dramatic, because the market did not fall to such lows as quickly as this year.

See the charts for the major averages below, with the 50 day moving average in blue and the 200 day in red:

Dow plunges on news recession began in Dec. 2007

Monday December 1, 7:04 pm ET
By Jeannine Aversa and Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writers

Dow sinks nearly 680 after group says US has been in a recession since December 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans sorely knew it already, but now it’s official: The country is in a recession, and it’s getting worse. Wall Street convulsed at the news — and a fresh batch of bad economic reports — tanking nearly 680 points. With the economic pain likely to stretch well into 2009, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday he stands ready to lower interest rates yet again and to explore other rescue or revival measures.

Rushing in reinforcements, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who along with Bernanke has been leading the government’s efforts to stem the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, pledged to take all the steps he can in the waning days of the Bush administration to provide relief. Specifically, Paulson is eyeing more ways to tap into a $700 billion financial bailout pool.

On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., vowed to have a massive economic stimulus package ready on Inauguration Day for President-elect Barack Obama’s signature.

That measure — which could total a whopping $500 billion — would bankroll big public works projects to generate jobs, provide aid to states to help with Medicaid costs and provide money toward renewable energy development. Crafting such a colossal recovery package would mark a Herculean feat: Congress convenes Jan. 6, giving lawmakers just two weeks to complete their work if it is to be signed on Jan. 20.

President George W. Bush, in an interview with ABC’s “World News,” expressed remorse about lost jobs, cracked nest eggs and other damage wrought by the financial crisis. “I’m sorry it’s happening, of course,” said Bush. The president said he’d back more government intervention.

None of the pledges for more action could comfort Wall Street investors. The Dow Jones industrials plunged 679.95 points, or 7.70 percent, to close at 8,149.09.

Major Stock Index Averages Test the Lows Again

So far the trading range is still holding up.  Quite a sharp bounce from these levels once again.

The S&P 500 actually broke the lows today before rocketing back.

Once, Twice, Three Times a Bottom…

Time for another chapter in the saga of capital destruction we call the stock market.

Just in time for the negative GDP number everyone has been waiting for, the market is finding a bottom.  It may not be the ultimate bear market bottom, but it’s probably the bottom for 2008.  As we noted in We’re sure scared now…bringing it all together, “Historically, a retest of the lows develops within a few months to verify the strength of the bottom.  Hitting the exact lows again is not a necessity, but a second significant down move usually at least comes close.  This offers a great time to pick up relative strength leaders as they separate from the pack.”

We have seen not only one, but two tests of the lows since that writing, in the broad market indices.  Neither one of those tests completely reached the initial low, but both were violent and low enough to be considered valid.  The updated chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average shows pullbacks of 1,500 and 1,100 points respectively, with both lows about 300 points above the initial low of October 10.

What has developed now is a trading range.  Not exactly bullish, but much better than the ski slope drop of the last few months, October in particular.  Seasonality is also about to turn positive as the November through April time period is historically the best six months of the year for the markets.  November itself is one of the best single months to be invested.

So how do we decide what to do?

There are several options here really.  Trading range strategies are particularly profitable in times of high volatility.  Selling premium and initiating spreads are some preferred options trading strategies for this kind of market environment.  For long term investors, picking up relative strength leaders near the lows is a great strategy.  Many stocks have been unfairly punished and are now wildly undervalued.  For indexers or 401k investors that have protected their assets with bond funds and stable value funds and cash, start moving it back in on these bad days as long as the lows hold.  For aggressive traders, we know there are some serious mean reversion trades already started.

What we must all keep in mind is that we do not know if the lows will hold or not.  As long as they do, buy them but don’t commit all of your capital at once.  Take little bites and dollar cost average into positions, especially if you are not trading.  There are many great opportunities here, but there will be many in the future also.  Don’t let yourself get stopped or margined out (heaven forbid) when you should be buying more.  The amount of forced liquidation by hedge funds is not something that is knowable by anyone.  It is creating great prices, but it could carry much further if the selling continues to feed upon itself.  If the trading range is broken to the upside we would become more bullish and would start to look at the 50 day, 200 day and 80 week moving averages as resistance.  Another bullish clue we are looking for is for volatility to drop, specifically the $VIX needs to drop under the 20 day moving average which has provided support since the breakout in early September.

Buy American. I Am.

By WARREN E. BUFFETT
Omaha

The financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.

So … I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.

Why?

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Let me be clear on one point: I can’t predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven’t the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower a month — or a year — from now. What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.

We’re sure scared now…bringing it all together

A historic level of fear, even panic, has developed as forced liquidation is removing some players from the market completely. Another difficult lesson in leverage and risk management for some really bright folks. Brings to mind one of my favorite quotes, compliments of John Maynard Keynes, “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent”.

Irrational may be a mild description for what we’re seeing in the markets currently.  After a 1,000 point range on Friday from top to bottom, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added almost another 1,000 points Monday.  Clearly the selling was overdone on the downside and the market was drastically oversold after a 3,000 point decline from top to bottom in the previous eight trading sessions.  Thankfully, those nasty shorts decided to take some profits and get the rebound started Friday morning.

We wouldn’t consider this the all clear signal however.  Historically, a retest of the lows develops within a few months to verify the strength of the bottom.  Hitting the exact lows again is not a necessity, but a second significant down move usually at least comes close.  This offers a great time to pick up relative strength leaders as they separate from the pack.

The correlation noted in Here we are again? 2001 vs. 2008, Is it really 2001 again? and Back to the future again and it’s not pretty has finally culminated in the fear based washout we have been looking for.  Admittedly, it was at much lower levels than we expected, but the timing was almost perfect.  The rebound in 2001 started on the morning of Friday, September 21 at 944.75 on the Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPX).  The rally continued on Monday and Tuesday of the next week, covering a respectable 75.54 points or 8% from the lows.  Another 20 points were added by the close of the week after a brief rest on Wednesday and Thursday. By the end of the following week, another 30 points had been added (for a total of 126.63 points or 13.4%, from the lows).  Two weeks later, the net gain was flat after a brief run over 1,107.  Sideways trading then developed until a clear break over 1,100 in the first week of November.  Around Thanksgiving, the new high of 1,163 had brought the market back from the lows by over 23%.  The rest of the year saw a peak gain of only 10 more points in the first week of December.  A final 3.5 points was all that was left for the first week of the new year, as an intermediate top at 1,176.97 was found.  That top was tested again in late March of 2002, after a 100 point (8.7%) drop into late February.  That was all she wrote for that bounce however, as the SPX found new lows at 768 in October, finally the low for the entire bear market.  Patient buyers were rewarded as the final retest of the lows completed a massive head and shoulders bottom in March of 2003 at 789.

In 2008, the rebound started on the morning of Friday, October 10 at 839.80 on the SPX, almost three weeks behind schedule.  So far, the monster rally of Monday, October 13 has added 167.13 points or 19.9% from the lows.  A morning look at the futures market suggests another 20 or so points may be in the works for Tuesday.  In just three trading days, this bounce has covered almost the entire distance of the rebound in 2001-02, on a percentage basis.  The preceding decline was also much more violent as the SPX dropped from 1,300 to the lows at 839.80 (35.4%) in just six weeks.  In 2001, the fall drop was 28.2% over 16 weeks.

What Does it All Mean

If history holds, only a small portion of this bounce is behind us and there will be plenty of opportunities to get in at decent prices.  The first leg of this rally is past, but the second leg could be just as profitable.  At the very least, consolidation will develop following these monster gains.  This will give nimble traders the ability to buy the dips.  Long term investors are almost guaranteed to get another chance at prices near the lows in the coming months.  The key is to watch overhead resistance, and there is a ton of it.  Fibonacci retracements, moving averages and previous lows all will take their bite from the rally.  Don’t forget The Significance of the 400 day (80 week) moving average indicates we are still in a bear market.  No other long term indicators have given buy signals either.

One more market comparison to consider is the crash of 1987 which found its low on Tuesday, October 20.  This price action may actually be more appropriate considering the violence of the decline.  This October “crash” market dropped 35.9% in 8 weeks, bounced 19.8% in two days, then dropped back to within a few percentage points of the low in early December.  The market then totally recovered within two years.

Dow finishes below 10,000 for first time since ’04

Monday October 6, 8:26 pm ET
By Joe Bel Bruno and Tim Paradis, AP Business Writers

Despite big afternoon rally, Wall Street finishes below 10,000 for first time since 2004

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street joined in a worldwide cascade of despair Monday over the financial crisis, driving the Dow Jones industrials to their biggest loss ever during a trading day. Even a big afternoon rally failed to keep the Dow from its first close below 10,000 since 2004.

The sell-off came despite the $700 billion U.S. government bailout package, which was signed into law Friday after two weeks in which traders had appeared to count on the rescue as their only hope to avoid a market meltdown.

At its worst point, the Dow was down more than 800 points, an intraday record. The stock market rallied during the final 90 minutes of the trading day, and the Dow finished down about 370 points at 9,955.50.

The average is down almost 30 percent from its all-time high of 14,164.53, set a year ago Thursday.

Speculation among traders late in the session that the market’s pullback had been severe enough to force the Federal Reserve into taking other steps to soothe the markets helped stocks rebound from their lows.

“If you can’t say that we’re oversold now I don’t know what you say. You’re at least due for a bounce if nothing else,” said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist for PNC Wealth Management.

The global plunge in stocks was under way well before Wall Street ever woke up. In Japan, the Nikkei average lost more than 4 percent. And then the losses spread across Europe — nearly 6 percent for the FTSE-100 in Britain, 7 percent for the German DAX and more than 9 percent for France’s CAC-40.

U.S. options fear gauge soars to record close

Mon Oct 6, 2008 5:54pm EDT

By Doris Frankel

CHICAGO, Oct 6 (Reuters) – An index regarded as Wall Street’s fear gauge surged to a record close on Monday as investors clamored for protection in anticipation of more stock market turmoil on worries over the widening credit crisis.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index .VIX, or VIX, surged to a record high of 58.24 before easing back to close up 15.31 percent to 52.05.

“This is absolutely amazing. The elevated VIX is reflecting that people are unsure about every financial relationship they have ever known not only in the U.S. but worldwide,” said Joe Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at thinkorswim Group.

Persistent strains in the credit markets added to nervousness about the wider economic outlook, while a spate of bank rescues in Europe heightened worries about the stability of global financial institutions.

“Not only are the U.S. banks in financial trouble but it appears that the European and foreign banks may be in worse trouble due to the credit crisis,” Kinahan added.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 369.88 points to fall below 10,000 for the first time in four years. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index .SPX fell 3.85 percent to 1,056.89.

The VIX, which reflects investors’ consensus about anticipated stock market volatility over a 30-day period, tends to move inversely to the S&P 500 benchmark, and spikes upward when the market posts sharp losses.

The record level in the VIX on Monday reflects a change in the index made by the CBOE in 2003 to provide a more precise reading on stock market conditions, basing the index on the prices of the more popular S&P 500 options.

The old VIX, introduced in 1993, is based on S&P 100 options, a smaller basket of stocks. That index, the VXO .VXO ,also hit a multiyear high on Monday, closing up 14.95 percent at 59.50, after scoring a new peak of 66.42.

“With today’s high on the VXO of 66.42, it is safe to say the uncertainty now exceeds all times in recent history, with the exception of the crash of 1987 when the old VIX hit 150.19 briefly and remained above the current levels until about Oct. 29, 1987,” said Randy Frederick, director of derivatives at Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.

Stocks tumble as bailout plan fails in House

Monday September 29, 5:05 pm ET
By Tim Paradis, AP Business Writer

Stocks plunge as financial bailout plan fails in House vote; Dow fall 777, biggest drop ever

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street’s worst fears came to pass Monday, when the government’s financial bailout plan failed in Congress and stocks plunged precipitously — hurtling the Dow Jones Industrials (INDU) down nearly 780 points in their largest one-day point drop ever. Credit markets, whose turmoil helped feed the stock market’s angst, froze up further amid the growing belief that the country is headed into a spreading credit and economic crisis.

Stunned traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, their faces tense and mouths agape, watched on TV screens as the House voted down the plan in mid-afternoon, and as they saw stock prices tumbling on their monitors. Activity on the floor became frenetic as the “sell” orders blew in.

The Dow told the story of the market’s despair. The blue chip index, dropped by hundreds of points in a matter of moments, and by the end of the day had passed by far its previous record for a one-day drop, 684.81, set in the first trading day after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The selling was so intense that just 162 stocks rose on the NYSE — and 3,073 dropped.

It takes an incredible amount of fear to set off such an intense reaction on Wall Street, and the worry now is that with the $700 billion plan fate uncertain, no one knows how the financial sector hobbled by hundreds of billions of dollars in bad mortgage bets will recover. While investors didn’t believe that the plan was a panacea, and understood that it would take months for its effects to be felt, most market watchers believed it was a start toward setting the economy right after a credit crisis that began more than a year ago and that has spread overseas.

“Clearly something needs to be done, and the market dropping 400 points in 10 minutes is telling you that,” said Chris Johnson president of Johnson Research Group. “This isn’t a market for the timid.”

The plan’s defeat came amid more reminders of how troubled the nation’s financial system is — before trading began came word that Wachovia Corp. (WB), one of the biggest banks to struggle due to rising mortgage losses, was being rescued in a buyout by Citigroup Inc (C). It followed the recent forced sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) and the failure of three other huge banking companies — Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC), Washington Mutual Inc. (WM) and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH); all of them were felled by bad mortgage investments.

House ignores Bush, rejects $700B bailout bill

Monday September 29, 4:07 pm ET
By Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Associated Press Writer

House rejects $700B emergency bailout bill in stunning defeat ignoring warnings from Bush

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a stunning vote that shocked the capital and worldwide markets, the House on Monday defeated a $700 billion emergency rescue for the nation’s financial system, ignoring urgent warnings from President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties that the economy could nosedive without it.

Stocks plummeted on Wall Street, beginning their plunge even before the 228-205 vote to reject the bill was officially announced on the House floor. The Dow Jones Industrials sank nearly 700 points for the day.

Democratic and Republican leaders alike said they were committed to trying again, though the Democrats said GOP lawmakers needed to provide more votes. Bush huddled with his economic advisers about a next step.

In the House chamber, as a digital screen recorded a cascade of “no” votes against the bailout, Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley of New York shouted news of the falling stocks. “Six hundred points!” he yelled, jabbing his thumb downward.

Bush and a host of leading congressional figures had implored the lawmakers to pass the legislation despite howls of protest from their constituents back home. Not enough members were willing to take the political risk just five weeks before an election.

“No” votes came from both the Democratic and Republican sides of the aisle. More than two-thirds of Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats opposed the bill.

Which Party Is Better for Stocks?

by Jeremy Siegel, Ph.D.
Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008, 12:00AM
YahooFinance.com

I would venture to say that most investors, especially those with substantial portfolios, are Republicans. After all, the GOP is the party that champions free markets, capital accumulation, and low taxes, principles that appeal to wealthy investors.

And historically, the initial reaction of the market to a Republican presidential victory confirms this thesis. During the last 120 years, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% on the day following a Republican victory in the presidential elections while it has fallen 0.5% the day after a Democrat captured the White House

However, a closer look tells a far different story. Over that same 120 year period, the average annual stock market return has totaled only 8.25% under Republican rule, while it has returned 10.85% with Democrats in power.

Over the past 60 years, this trend has been more pronounced. The Democrats have held the presidency only 41% of that time, but under their rule the average annual return has been 15.26%, more than six percentage points higher than the 9.01% return under Republicans.

Good and Bad Presidencies

Returns during the last two administrations support these conclusions. The return on the market under the Clinton administration (1992-2000) was 19% per year, the highest of any president since Calvin Coolidge led the country in the mid 1920s.

On the contrary, the real return so far under G.W. Bush has been a measly 0.22%, and an even worse minus 2.69% return once inflation is subtracted. This return is the second worst of the postwar period, exceeded only by the negative 7% real return under the Nixon administration. In fact the Nixon and Bush Republican administrations were the only two periods since The Great Depression when shareholders suffered after-inflation losses in the stock market.

Bernanke the Magnificent? or The Amazing Bernanke?

Well, our president may not have a magic wand, but it looks like our Fed Chairman does.

This weekend Big Ben got together with his govt. cronies and they whipped up a wicked brew that is the antidote to the housing crisis and savior of all things financial. The SEC put the clamps on the shorts, the Treasury got into the mortgage underwriting business and Big Ben opened the Fed money faucet a little wider.

Hooray!??

Let’s see, that’s $30B for Bear Stearns, $8B for Indy Mac & now $5T worth of mortgages at Fannie and Freddie. I wonder if the cost of printing dollars has gone up with the increased raw material costs?

Our LD President Bush danced on the scene with an empty promise to drill the OCS for a few hundred thousand Bpd in 10 years and the world was right again.

Oil plunged, bank stocks soared. It must have brought a smile to their faces.

But is it reality? Have the finance gods truly been appeased?

Are We Scared Yet?

Well, our commentary on June 22 in Is it really 2001 again? certainly proved timely. Big Ben stepped up to play the role of boogeyman again and the markets took a tumble last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) found new lows while the S&P 500 (SPX) tested the lows from March. Everything was going exactly to plan, or was something missing?

Get Your Buy Orders Ready

Today has all the markings of a short term bottom.

DJIA futures down almost 550 points.

Wrong Again Ben

If the one year treasury has fallen 2%, why has fed funds only dropped 1%? Ben is wrong. Too tight.

Even the 10 year is down 1.4%. He is at least .50 too tight right now.