E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSOptimism that European leaders will come up with a plan to stave off a Greek default drove shares higher on Wall Street Tuesday.
At midafternoon, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 300 points, or about 2.8 percent. The broader S&P 500 gained about 2.7 percent. If the Dow closes higher today, it would be its third straight day of gains.
Euro zone officials were considering a number of options to alleviate the building debt crisis there that has been pounding global financial markets. Last week, stocks, gold, silver and oil tumbled amid worries that if Europe failed to keep Greece from defaulting on its debt, the ripple effect would hit next hit Italy, Europe's third-largest economy, and slam banks in Europe and the U.S. who are exposed to debt from Greece and Italy.
If that happened, it could push the world into a new recession that may be more extreme than the one that officially ended in the U.S. in 2009.
But nothing concrete has emerged yet from Europe and it was uncertain anything would.
"Nothing has drastically changed. We get conversations around how we can get out of this mess -- and those are good. We need those," Michael Sansoterra, portfolio manager of the RidgeWorth Large Cap Growth Fund, told Reuters.
"But we've yet to see any concrete action. Actions speak louder than words, so we'll flail about until we get some action."
Much depended on whether German Chancellor Angela Merkel could persuade lawmakers in her country to agree to a leveraging up of a bailout fund for Europe that would allow it to raise more money to stop Greece's woes from spreading elsewhere on the continent.
Greece took a crucial first step towards approving the new austerity plan it needs to meet requirements to get further international aid. Reuters reported that Greek lawmakers gave the nod to a property tax law that is likely to prove very unpopular to the Greek people.
Most of Wall Street's focus was on Europe rather than issues at home. Investors largely ignored news that showed home prices in most big U.S. cities increased for a fourth straight month in July, and a flat reading of September consumer confidence.
CNBC's Silvia Wadhwa has the latest details on Tuesday's meeting between Greek Prime Minister Papandreou and German Chancellor Merkel, and a look at whether Europe will be able to overcome its debt crisis, with Rich Ross, Auerbach Grayson; Louise Coo...
Leave a Comment:
And next week it will be down another 500. Sell off when it is up for a profit, then rebuy back when it is low..rinse and repeat.
But nothing concrete has emerged yet from Europe and it was uncertain anything would.
===========================
Doesn't matter does it? At the least "hint" that "something" "may happen" the markets skyrocket. Next week when it becomes clear nothing is going to happen we'll have a repeat of last week.
Thats how we win. We lost more under Bush that one can perceieve. We've made 65% of our money back under President Obama. The secret is we now know when to buy and sell. As far as your piddly 401k's are concerned, we could care less.
Michael2424, by your blog I can see that you have no money in the market, let alone making 65% under this clueless President. Talk about something that you probably know a whole lot more about; Union Welfare!!!!!!!
Man, there are some real ignorant/greedy people out there buying stocks just to "get rich quick".
They treat the stock market as their "poker game", and don't want to work for their money, invest it and watch it grow over time.
These people need to be shot.
WE need to outlaw short sales of stocks, to prevent these roller coaster rides, as they are putting everyone(s) investments at serious risks.
I would also like to ask, what does President Obama have to do with any of this?
NOTHING, you idiots.
The Federal Government bailed out Wall Street, as they should have, otherwise you would be in Deeper @!$%# than you already are in.
THe move that the Federal Government is the right action to make, as they can't be our safety blanket forever.
IT IS YOU, WHO NEEDS TO CHANGE YOUR INVESTMENT STRATEGY!!!!
START INVESTING LONG TERM, AND QUIT @!$%#ING WITH THE ECONOMY!!!!!
UP-down, if down its Gietners fault, if up its nobody's "fault", the truth is the only way the traders make money is up - down. No relationship to reality!! Well we are going to bail out Europe!!
Yay we're all rich now!!! :-/
One of two things is happening. Either someone is manipulating all these ups and downs in order to buy low and sell high over and over again or else the people that are running things are incredibly incompetent. My guess is that both are happening. We have greedy Wall Street investors pulling the strings behind the scenes in order to make a profit by controlling the corrupt and incompetent politicians that we vote into office because we are all too lazy to actually find the competent and honest politicians (if there is such a thing) amidst the nasty electioneering that goes on.
It is called short selling. And to answer your question it is the investors that are incompetent because they are allowing short selling to take place. We need to outlaw it like they have done elsewhere. If people want to gamble their money and make short term gains there are casinos in almost every major, and some not so major, city.
same thing that happened in the 30's
Obama didn't speak last night, hence the reason for the rise
no, gov't sponsored HFT manipulation at work. More lies and deceit. They can do this very easily now during low volume.
Las Vegas East strikes again...
More funny money gets printed to bail these clowns out.
And I guess my original (and the first post on here earlier) must have been deleted by the MSNBC editors.... I guess it wasn't politically correct enough.
The market has a mind of it's own. It's just the market and nothing else. Also, with all the problems and uncertainty in the world, just maybe, investors are going to start to look at the US as a safe haven. Hopefully.
It'll be funny as hell when the European "deal" falls through and all the idiots that sunk their last dime in this artificial boom lose their last dime.
.
Right now it's down to +124 with less than 10 minutes to go until close. What happened to the +300?
Yeah, and then what happened?
They should call the market the 'Plung&Pray' Market or maybe change Wall Street to 'Plung&Pray'.
The market manipulators got it away from investors before they could react!! Wall Street is done with main Street. There high speed computer trading is set to sell before main street knows its too late.
Investors are years away from eeven gettin back 2009 gains!!b