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Subscribe to RSSNEW YORK — Stocks closed mixed Friday afternoon as traders scrutinized a plan to contain Europe's debt crisis that sent the market soaring a day earlier.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average finished the trading day up 22.03 points, or 0.18 percent to 12,230.58. The Dow surged 339 points the day before, its biggest gain since Aug. 11. The Dow is headed for its biggest monthly gain since 1987.
"It's a kind of sobering-up after a day of partying," said Jerry Webman, chief economist with Oppenheimer Funds in New York.
European leaders unveiled a plan early Thursday to expand their regional bailout fund and force banks to keep bigger cash buffers. Banks agreed to forgive half of Greece's debt. The Dow and the Standard & Poor's 500 index both gained more than 3 percent.
Optimism ebbed on Friday as analysts raised questions about the plan, which lacks many key details. It is not yet clear how the rescue fund will work, for example. European markets mostly fell, and the euro declined against the dollar.
"We got back to what's more of a square position, closer to where we want to be, and now we're going to take a couple of deep breaths and reassess what this really means," Webman said. He said there are still plenty of obstacles to overcome before the crisis is resolved.
One troubling sign: Borrowing costs for Italy and Spain increased, signaling that traders remain worried about their finances.
The S&P 500 index rose 0.38 points, or 0.03 percent, to 1,284.97. The Nasdaq composite index slipped 1.48 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,737.15.
The Dow is up 11.9 percent this month, the S&P 13.4 percent. Both indexes are on pace to have their best month since January 1987.
In less than four weeks, the Dow has risen 14.5 percent from its 2011 low, reached on Oct. 3. The S&P has gained 16.6 percent in that time. However, the Dow remains 4.8 percent below this year's high, reached on April 29. The S&P is 6.1 percent below its high.
Whirlpool Corp. slumped 14 percent, the most in the S&P index, after the appliance maker said it would cut 5,000 jobs, citing weak demand and higher costs for materials. Another household name, Newell Rubbermaid Inc., soared 12 percent after its adjusted earnings beat Wall Street's expectations. The maker of tubs and markers maintained its outlook for the year.
Cablevision Systems Corp. fell 13 percent after reporting that its third-quarter net income dropped sharply and it lost cable TV subscribers.
Thursday's stock rally led to a sell-off in Treasurys, which traders hold to protect their money when other investments are falling. Demand for Treasurys increased sharply Friday, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury down to 2.31 percent from 2.39 percent late Thursday.
Markets have been roiled for months by fears about the impact of Europe's debt crisis. Greece couldn't afford to repay its lenders, and banks holding Greek bonds faced billions in losses. A disorganized default by Greece threatened to spook lenders to other countries with heavy debt loads such as Spain and Italy. Traders feared that a wave of defaults by countries would cause financial panic and mire the global economy.
Some analysts expect traders to refocus on U.S. economic news next week after months spent watching Europe. The government releases its jobs report for October next Friday. A news conference by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke might offer clues about the Fed's economic outlook. Key reports on manufacturing and business sentiment are due out as well.
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My portfolio gained because of your short sightedness and because we have a leader in the White House, namely President Obama. My portfolio has seen three years of plus growth. For 2009, plus 45%, for 2010, plus 16% and for 2011, I'm currently plus 5% and expect it to grow more in the plus side by year end. President Obama has been good for investors and when he is re-elected, we smart folks will enjoy 4 more years of plus side gains. The crash of 2007-2008 was directly related to the Bush/Cheney thieves who spent all our taxpayers money on two un-necessary and very stupid wars, plus massive spending on medicare and tax breaks for the rich. The Republicans will only steal your money and give it to the rich, as they have been doing since Ronnie was at the helm in 1980. Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 have all contributed to the ruin of American prosperity. Save the USA and re-elect President Obama and put Democrats or Independents in the Congress and Senate.
Dang socialist... keep making money when the republiCons keep wanting to take it away.
Hey, let’s privatize social security so that when the next Wall St. melts down, speculators take ALL our money!
Wall Street speculators need to be tried as traitors. A few public executions (where’s rick perry when you need him?), would do wonders to clean up capitalism!
Regards,
99%
american68, can you please explain why the Presidential office is the only factor you used in considering the cause of your windfall and prior losses? Why would you not also consider the influence of Congress. Guess it doesn't suit your agenda to attribute your windfall profits during Clinton (who actually understood the meaning of working with another party), to any of the GOP control? Or maybe the last year or so is also again because of a change in House of Representative control? And before you quickly answer you might want to research what combination of Presidential leader and House control has historically been best for the stock market. But because no doubt you'll be too lazy: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/1101/Divided-we-make-money-Why-the-stock-market-wants-a-Republican-victory
Likewise, maybe you should also be considering the impact of laws enacted by the then DNC controlled lawmakers under Bush 43 when considering the reasoning for your losses.
Once again let me remind every one: about 80% of the wealth of the stock market is owned by the richest 10%.
http://www.mybudget360.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/financial-wealth-united-states.png
50% of american house holds own no stock at all. So mainly when you read about the stock market going up it's not people like you who are doing doing better.
The hogs are just getting even fatter.
Aus10:
Social Security (SS) has been insolvent for decades. There is no money in SS, just trillions of dollar government IOUs. For decades, the payment to SS recipients has come not from SS but the general fund which is funded by taxes and loans -- principally, loans from the Chinese and Japanese, $1.2 trillion and $.9trillion, respectively. Even those massive loans have disappeared under the borrow-and-spend plan.
As originally conceived SS was a pay-as-you-go plan. However, when there's trillions of SS dollar lying around in DC, the sticky finger politicians lost their morals and helped themselves until today, SS is insolvent. The corrupt politicians must continue to promote the virtue of SS even though it is just another big tax on workers who have little chance of ever collecting a single cent. Basically, SS is a Ponzi scheme operated by the Federal government. SS is a fraud on the American people.
Many Americans continue to believe in the benefit of SS because the highly effective government propaganda have convinced them SS is good for them. It is amazing what waving the flag and singing "God Bless America" can achieve.
This is another bubble. Time it right and get rich. Mis-time it and go broke.
No way some of these companies are worth what people are paying. Their [shareprice x shares] should equal [annual profit x 7]. That's known as a proper valuation.
proper valuation? in what year? how old are you? perhaps the proper price for a loaf of bread is $.06, and a new car should cost $800.
like the price of a rental property should be 12 times the gross yearly rents?
or rent on a house should be 1% of the current value?
sorry, but those are the old rules.
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if someone wants to pay more for something than you are asking for it, are you going to say "no!!!"? didn't think so.
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the old saying is ''something is worth only what someone is willing to pay for it.'' so if a stock sells for 70x earnings (and there is!!) it would appear there are enough people who think that is the proper price for that stock.
to dictate that stocks should only sell at 7x earnings is akin to advocationg for non-capitalist systems.
and we certainly don't want those setups, do we?
do we?
a free market is the most efficient, the most honest, the quickest to react, most productive etc, etc.
We gona save the US by voting Obama out in 2012 if he dont completely ruin it by 2012.
to be in the top 1% it takes $343,927 a year!
during the last administration it took $424,413!
THE AMERICAN ECONOMY has taken a huge hit! and trying to get things back on track is a HUGE, HUGE effort. and it takes time. YEARS AND YEARS, AND YEARS!
PERHAPS SOME SHOULD PONDER HOW AND WHY WE HAD TO TAKE THIS HUGE HIT---- THAT STARTED IN THE LAST ADMINISTRATION!!
ANY GUESSES?? ANYONE????
Folks it doesn’t matter who’s in office. Our political system has turned into a two headed one party system with both parties serving their masters, Wall Street and the banksters/Federal Reserve. The stock market is just another ponzi scheme whose intent is to fleece the gullible at the bottom of the pyramid. The stock market is a rouge element of a financial system that is meant to funnel the wealth to the elite who let’s face it, dictate our financial lives. When you blame one party or another they have you right where they want you, in fear and distracted to the theft that is going on right in front of your eyes each and every second of the day.
When you have people on Wall Street day trading and speculating making half a million dollars a year in their twenties betting on people being foreclosed on, you need to ask yourself what is the true purpose of our banking system? At the moment it is largely a theft on the American public. The financial system’s main mission should be to allocate capital to areas of greatest growth in the real world economy. Yet these derivative markets are based on non-realistic side bets.
The European banking crisis is a prime example of what is going to happen to all economies associated with the Federal Reserve banking system. The financial strife in Greece is the model that will befall most countries. Greece is but a symptom of a cancer that has attached itself to the world’s economies. The Federal Reserve (which is neither federal nor a reserve) has been creating money (monopoly money) out of thin air and charging interest on it insuring a debtor economy for anyone who chooses or is forced to get involved with the Federal Reserve and their fractional reserve banking system. That is why this whole European or any countries current debt crisis will never be resolved and will be preyed upon by the stock market vultures. The Federal Reserve System is designed to cause economies to fail.
If someone loans you two dollars to run your economy and expects three back for the loan and interest how are you going to pay the third back. You can’t unless you borrow more dollars which puts you in perpetual debt and in a constant borrowing cycle to pay off the debt. This is designed not accidental.
Here’s the kicker, once the Federal Reserve has you struggling to pay off your interest, they send in their loan sharks the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF will loan you money to cover your ever burdening interest payments but they attach a provision that if you default, you will have to give them your assets in what they call privatization (foreclosure).
Since the interest is exponential you will default and the banksters come in and foreclose on your country, like Greece. They are being told to sell off their own country to pay back the people who caused the mess to begin with. This allows the elite to steal your valuable assets because they gave you paper (loans/debt) and the interest on the debt that is systematically impossible to pay back. This also allows the parasitic stock speculators to profit from this designed theft. This cancer goes all the way down the food chain.
In the United States case, it doesn’t have to be that way. In our constitution, in Article 1, Section 8, it stipulates that we can “coin money” as a nation and avoid the Federal Reserve’s interest (fee charged on loans) black hole.
So don’t be fooled that the Europeans have come to grips with their financial debt, it’s impossible, it’s a virus that has spread around the globe. Opening the door for the stock market to contrive “financial instruments” to fleece the people of the world.
Banks, Central banks, IMF = Federal Reserve = Debtor economies, Debtor Nations (economic slaves) and carrion for the stock market derivative heist.
Where do you see the growth coming from? Corporations are not paying more tax and rich are getting richer. So how long do you see this going before, the rest of us say enough. These corporations are just buying one business after another and not paying tax's at a rate that the rest of us are. So how long is it going to take before big corpotations shut down our government? So while corporations are overall doing great, is that at the expense of American tax payers? While the uber rich get richer is great, they are crippling our economy. Raising inflation is not helping our cause, it is helping thiers. An interesting perspective on what is to come. When inflation is the new growth plan.
same bunch o complaints..seem like the manipulators and looters won AND will win...bleeding rhe suckers in the only game in town, middleman.. looters looters