hey, I just moved all of my TIAA-CREF out of stocks. That shows that economics is indeed a science!
On 7/26/07, Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
NY Times, July 26, 2007 Market Slides on Housing and Oil Worries By JEREMY W. PETERS Wall Street hit a sharp skid today as more worrisome signs about the health of the housing market emerged and oil prices edged near last summer's record. The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index fell more than 2 percent, dipping below the 1,500 mark for the first time since last month. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled almost 250 points. Losses for the Nasdaq were equally steep. Investors had a lot of bad news to digest, much of it coming from the distressed housing market. The Commerce Department reported that sales of new homes dropped 6.6 percent in June, and that sales in previous months were lower than first estimated. In the last year, new home sales have fallen 22 percent. Also today, there was dismal news out of two major home builders. D. R. Horton, the nation's second-largest builder, reported a loss of $823.8 million — far more than Wall Street analysts were expecting. Beazer Homes reported a loss in the second quarter of $123 million. Near-record oil prices also seemed to be rattling investors today. The price of a barrel of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange topped $77 in trading today for the first time since last summer. Prices have closed above $77 a barrel only once before. Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company, was battered today on Wall Street as it reported a drop in earnings during the second quarter. The company still earned $10.3 billion, but that was lower than analysts had predicted. Its stock dropped more than 4 percent, weighing heavily on the Dow average. The losses were so sharp at one point that the New York Stock Exchange engaged its trading curbs, which limit stock orders in the event of wild volatility. Treasury yields dropped considerably and prices climbed today, a sign that investors were moving assets out of stocks and into the relative security of the bond market. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to its lowest point since May.
-- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
