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Subscribe to RSSStocks plummeted on Wall Street Wednesday amid fears that Italy's soaring borrowing costs would push Europe's third-largest economy to the brink. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly dropped 300 points while the market's volatility gauge soared.
Italian borrowing costs reached a breaking point, hitting 7.5 percent as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's promise to resign failed to raise optimism about the country's ability to deliver on long-promised economic reforms.
Italy has replaced Greece at the center of the euro zone debt crisis and is teetering on the cusp of requiring a bailout that many say Europe cannot afford to give.
Portugal and Ireland were forced to seek bailouts when their borrowing costs reached similar levels.
"You are dealing with a pretty substantial economy, you are not dealing with a Greek economy, you are dealing with something that is far more significant," said Barry Ritholtz, chief market strategist at Fusion IQ in New York.
"I don't think Italy can just walk away, they can't simply default whereas Greece can, because if they do that is the end of the euro."
By midday, European stocks were lower by 2 percent after an early rally that had been ignited by Berlusconi's announcement to step down.
Adding to worries about the region, a plan for a former European Central Bank official to lead a Greek coalition government ran into trouble, sources said, as the nation sought to head off a feared bankruptcy.
The government reported that wholesale businesses in the U.S. reduced their stockpiles in September for the first time in nearly two years, while their sales rose. The trend could be a good sign for future factory output because manufacturers will have to produce more if demand keeps rising.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking at a small business and entrepreneurship conference, urged banks to boost lending to small businesses.
CNBC's Ross Westgate has the details on Italy's prime minister announcing that he will resign after implementing urgent economic reforms.
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Damn!! Yesterday and this morning, it was poised to go up because of Italy. Which is it, MSNBC? Do you people have a clue what you are writing?
This market is the biggest gambling casino. This is NOT a place to invest, this is a place to make a bet. The small guy better watch out and only those with inside information will do well. There is too much world debt and we need to deleverage and this will cause all of us lot more pain in the future.
Printed dollars 3 trillion, bank credit 9 trillion, debt 65 trillion. Debt cannot be paid with interest because debt is the money supply and interest portion does not exist. We ran out of borrowers. Google for "DEFLATIONARY CRASH". It is going to be a deflationary crash and great depression is going to pale! There is nothing the FED can do. If they print money, savers will pay. If they don't print, then borrowers will pay. In a global economy, it does not matter who pays! It will cause a depression.
www.kondratieffwavecycle.com/economy/deflationary-crash/
Another day......
And the market players are placing their bets... some players win, some players lose
But for the most part, the average American gets screwed over with each bet.
Hang on folks... the ride is gonna get really rough and bumpy soon... kinda like putting one of those High Speed Rail bullet train on NYC subway tracks...
This just in.. a squirrel just got hit by a car in the middle of no-ware making the stock market drop 300 points.
Come on people the stock market is a joke it has more highs and lows then a recovery drug addict. I would not wast anymore time and money on a broken system.
Hey you must not believe in the GOP solution for EVERYTHING... It's the market.... of course, if your company, your bank, your ROTH, your IRA are in stocks, bonds, or any financial instrument you have a profound interest in the markets..... but then the rich always benefit in any way the market goes....
I hope it hits 0, I will give up my entire 401 just to see the street littered with wall street jumpers...
I don't understand why wall street is going to have problems.Energy oil and trade futures should be up.Stupid speculators are making oil increase over Iran's nuke program.BS should take every speculator and trader and drown them in the oil.We will never get out of this recession with nambee pambee, crying wolf idiots screaming doom and gloom every time the wind blows. But hell oil companies are making profits so who cares.This manipulation of these commodities should be investigated,and everyone who is involved should be sent to prison and licenses revoked.
Greece and now Italy...this is nuts.
Spain is next in line.
Followed by the rest of the PIIGS then the US. Sorry, you cannot spend endlessly forever...the bill comes due. The US Government, under both parties, has spent us into oblivian. The average American is simply too stupid to even grasp the Federal Debt numbers and forget even understanding what the deficit is versus what our debt is. They are too busy watching 'reality TV' and blaming everyone else for their inability to be successful.
15 trillion in US debt, with I believe around a trillion in deficit spending to fund more lunacy. No one wants to cut back....'don't touch SS' 'don't touch medicare', don't raise my taxes, don't cut spending, don't...don't....don't. Yes, this will all play out well. LOL
M i c k e y M o u s e, mickey mouse ****** Again!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAWN!
Thank God I have all my money invested in Iraqi dinar.
Glen Beck was right on - The EURO Cartel is in a downward spiral and we will be caught up in the downdraft.
WTF is going on here?
joepa gets to retire too! Market goes down 200 points more!!!
Europe isn't the problem. Failure to fix our trade so Americans can go back to work, implement E-Verify nationwide to stop illegals from taking American jobs and pushing out 12 anchors per breeding couple for the taxpayers to raise, decertify all public employee unions, make the super rich (who pay less percentage-wise than the upper middle class in taxes) and the public corporations 2/3 of which pay zero income taxes finally pay a fair rate, and reduce gobblement spending (we can start with the $698 billion we spent on military spending in 2010).
Help Fix America First
http://helpfixamericafirst.blogspot.com
I heard its a billion a week in afganistan.I think if you sell a product here it must be made here.I dont see how were expected to compete with cheap labor from china,we cant!And they cant afford stuff made here.
Everyone makes it sound impossible to get illegal aliens to leave,i know i could make it happen!Its a matter of having the will to do it.The mexican border isnt the far from all of the united states.
And lets stop being the worlds police,close military bases and end the wars.
.........and we all fall down.
Are ya happy now, OWS? Are ya happy now?
Now make sure you pick a nice deck chair with a view on the deck of the Titanic for the sinking. Greek debt like flea on elephants butt... Italy's debt like someone going down with the Titanic?
So a whole bunch of rich people bailed out of the market, making tons of gains.
This is why the market goes down, because people are selling stocks.
So anyone that didn't sell quickly, lost tons.
Now when the drop slows, those that have enough money to buy, will buy, causing the market to go up.
That's why the market goes up in value, because people are buying stocks.
So if you actually had enough money to buy and sell large amounts of stock, and can act quickly, quicker than most, you can dictate the movement of the market while insuring gains and negating losses.
Who do you think has enough money to really play the market and cause these swings.
I guarantee, those long term, investment and retirement plans are not jumping into and out of the market to cause this kind of activity.
The world wide economic crisis was created from the deregulation of derivatives. (the biggest PONZI scheme in the history of the world) Ratios changed from 12-1 to 40-1 and the PONZI scheme began with no regulations at all. (the SEC was NOT allowed to even question the trades, much less regulate) Google derivatives and learn about the repeal of Glass-Steagall act in 1999, and the deregulation acts GLB and CFM. Between 2000 and June 2008 over $645 TRILLION (80 TRILLION a year average) in derivatives were traded. AIG defaulted on a CDS payment in the summer of 2008 and the PONZI scam started to unravel. That money came from the governments of Greece and Italy etc. Phil Gramm (R) TX former Senate finance chairman pushed the GOP agenda to deregulate. Shame of it all, is that 90 rich Senators from both parties voted to repeal the Glass Steagall act, Do NOT buy the BS about deregulating wall street or corporations. That is the major cause of our housing crisis. Where do you think the sub-prime money came from? OWS
Germany
3,286.5
20.2%
3.7
36,081
83.2
-3.3
1.2
5.8
France
2,562.7
15.8%
1.5
33,910
81.7
-7.0
1.7
9.9
United Kingdom
2,250.2
13.9%
1.8
35,059
80.0
-10.4
3.3
8.0*
Italy
2,055.1
12.7%
1.8
29,480
119.0
-4.6
1.6
8.3
4th, not 3rd.
Luckily i have a report on the future from one who is already there...the bible. Your Gold will be worthless and a days wages for a loaf of bread. Divest yourself of stocks and invest in Wheat,barley and oats.
Some where, we the people, in America have to draw a line in the sand between our freedom and our big brother that wants to take away our rights of freedom to speech and religion.
As well as the right to bear arms.
Every day I can feel the freedom being pulled on, by you know who, from my soul. Freedom is the only thing worth living or dying for.
Prepare For "The Freedom War" that is brewing in America.
World Warriors, Freedom Fighters and others like them
UNITE to protect our rights of ...— — — ... FREEDOM ... — — — ...
"The Freedom March" Washington DC 2012.
Even though they say today is a just a test, we the people, should treat it as the real thing such as an emp. unplug all your aplliances TV's computers refrigerators heaters remove your batteries from your electronic equipment. fill upo your bath tub with water. Car with gas and disconnect the battery. Extra food. At home with the people you love.
Democrats and Republicans are on different sides of the same totem pole people.
Herman Caine is the only Citizen running for President. He has to be our man if we want to remain citizens.
Cain is too busy greasing his zipper
Wall Street tumbles in FEAR Italy's 99% waking up and taking control from the criminal 1%.
Some foreign country farts twice and the stock market goes ape. All of this goes right back to the big financial institutions here and abroad who 'helped' these governments finance or re-finance their debt to the big banks liking. That's what happened to Greece in 2008/09 when the big US banks helped them out and look where Greece and the other countries are today.
Wait, you mean you cannot run a country on excessive DEBT and endless deficits? So at some point, you have to pay up and not blame someone else?
The US is not far behind any of the PIIGS....the only difference is we are a large PIG who spends more and the poor/middle class/47% that don't pay Federal Taxes will all assume the terrible RICH will pay the debt off. Laughable....coming soon to a country (THE US) near you.
The unions will still demand more money for their 'hard working' members, those that don't pay Federal Income taxes will continue to blame everyone else, OWS will blame everyone else.....the US dollar will be worthless at the point everyone realized we cannot pay it back. Every talks about pitching in and helping except when it comes to THEM sacrificing, then they point at anyone that has a penny more than them and says YOU PAY.
Morons
Too big to fail; Too big to bail.
They can't stop borrowing and they can't pay the money back.
... the debt economy is failing and all the Kings men can not put Humpty back together again..
Let it fall all the way to the bottom. Maybe the gov and obamma will go too.