Thursday, February 21, 2013

Economic Journal - Thursday, 2/21/2013

(As of 7:15 am PST)
 
A sharp reversal in market sentiment is pushing stocks lower this morning, continuing a sell-off that picked up speed as the day wore on yesterday.  Global markets are down across the board with weak economic data weighing on Europe and Asia markets which took their cue from the US stock slump yesterday.  The fear of a reversal of the easy money Federal Bank policy is one of the culprits of the sagging market.  The market reaction reminds us of how difficult it might be to wean the stock market off the steady diet of stimulus that has been the basis of much of the last few years’ gains.  Oil continues to plummet on oversupply fears and gold is down a small amount.  Long term mortgage rates are moving up in anticipation of the Fed cutting down on mortgage bond purchases.  It seems that market momentum has shifted abruptly to the down side after a long period of investor complacency.  Volatility is up sharply over the last couple of days.

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