Panic Spreading In Stock Market
Panic seems to be spreading in the stock market as the S&P Index gives back all of it’s gains made in 2007. The S&P 500 lost 22.93 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,416.77, leaving it with a 0.1 percent loss on the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 211.1, or 1.6 percent, to 12,799.04. on the day before the Thanksgiving holiday.
“It’s a very panicky market,” said John Kattar, who oversees $2 billion as chief investment officer at Eastern Investment Advisors in Boston. “There’s a growing feeling that the problems are unknowable and unquantifiable, and that there’s no way of dealing with it except through the passage of time.”
While an old Wall Street saying is that the stock market climbs a wall of worry for many investors the list of problems now piling up seems more like a mountain of grief. With crude oil flirting with the $100 a barrel level, the US housing market coming apart, the subprime mortgage market bomb still spreading toxic waste, the US’s endless wars still dragging on, and with $800 an oz. gold signaling loud and clear that all is not normal or well, prudent investors are heading for the exits.
Conditions in the stock market could get really nasty even before the year is out. And as for 2008. Well, very likely the bears will be happy.
