Word: dowe
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Even with the Dow Jones Industrial Average flying high over 8000, few on Wall Street say they expect a crash anytime soon. Indeed, the world is a prosperous, friendly place these days, and the coffee-shop buzz is, "How do I get in the market?" not "How do I get out?" But make no mistake, the stock market could crash again. Mechanically, there is nothing in place to guarantee that the Dow won't fall 1000 points by lunch and another 800 points in the afternoon. Get real! An 1,800-point decline today would be the same 23% drop...
...N.Y.S.E. has adopted a flight of funny-named trading curbs: "collars" prevent certain computerized stock trading when the Dow is up or down 50 points in a day; the "sidecar" rule gives small orders priority when the market is moving briskly; and "circuit breakers" halt trading for 30 minutes when the Dow is down 350 points and for one hour when it is down 550 points. The curbs ensure that investors have time to think. But at the end of the day, if what they think is that they should sell, their brokers, the fund companies and the exchanges...
...thing other than Alan Greenspan that seems able to slow an exuberant stock market right now is a shrinking unemployment rate. So after the government released a report this morning showing that the nation's jobless rate dropped to 4.8 percent in July, matching a 24-year low, the Dow promptly fell nearly 120 points. While the White House was quick to claim credit ("The strategy of balancing the budget, while investing in our people and selling more American products around the world, has helped to produce sustained prosperity for Americans," Clinton said), markets slowed out of fears that...
...long can it last? Even though the economy is jumping, unemployment and inflation are low and the Dow is at a record high, Americans remain pessimists. The Conference Board's index of consumer confidence dropped to 126.5 in July, down from 129.9 in June and well below the 130 that Wall Street analysts had predicted. Sure, consumers said they feel great about the state of the economy right now. It's the future they're worried about. Everybody from the federal government to the fully invested cabdriver is laying plans for the downturn, or even the crash they fear...
...analysts are finding an insidious side to this seemingly logical procedure. The knock is that index funds are a perpetual investment machine, mindlessly buying the stocks that constitute the index, so as cash rolls in, the index moves higher, without regard for the prices being paid. Critics say the Dow Jones industrial average, which passed 8000 last week, did so well ahead of its rightful time in part because index funds (Dow stocks are in the big ones) are getting so much money to invest. Their conclusion: the indexes have become bloated with overpriced stocks and can't help getting...