isopatch,
I wonder what your take is on the following plethora of bearish news. What are the Riggers up to or have they fallen out of the Rigging??
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This URL might be too long, If so, just go to bloomberg top financial news, "Dollar Gains Against Yen, Euro As Investors Seek US Assets":
quote.bloomberg.com
Apparently those assets are Treasuries, Dollars
bloomberg.com
Asian Markets Sink On Global Woes:
siliconinvestor.com
Sea Of Red:
bloomberg.com
Could we call this a Reverse Bubble?? Note Templeton says we could be in for a nine year bear market:
03/22 08:06
European Stocks Fall Amid Profit Concern; Invensys,
Zurich Drop
By Alistair Barr
London, March 22 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks dropped after companies
ranging from U.K. engineer Invensys Plc to Swiss insurer Zurich Financial
Services AG said profits would drop because of slowing economic growth. The
Dow Jones Europe Stoxx 50 Index posted its biggest loss this year.
Benchmark indexes lost more than 2 percent in Europe's eight biggest stock
markets. European Central Bank President Wim Duisenberg suggested that
European growth may be affected by worse- than-expected weakness in the U.S.
economy.
``Finally the ECB has recognized that the U.S. slowdown is going to have a
significant impact on Europe,'' said Reinhard Pfingsten, a European fund
manager at ADIG Investment Gesellschaft, which manages about 30 billion euros
($26.8 billion). ``I'm not betting on a fast recovery in equities.''
Sonera Oyj fell after Finland's government fired most of the state-controlled phone
company's board. Lower profit and rising debt have push Sonera shares 90
percent lower in the past year.
The Europe Stoxx 50 lost 114.33 points, or 2.9 percent, to 3782.37 after earlier
sliding as much as 3.2 percent. All of the 18 industry groups in the 600-member
Dow Jones Stoxx Index dropped, 16 by more than 1 percent.
Invensys fell 21p, or 16 percent, to 108. The U.K. factory- controls maker, which
gets half its revenue in the U.S., said it will eliminate 6 percent of its workforce
by year-end as slowing demand in the U.S. will hurt fiscal second-half profit.
Zurich, Axa, Allianz Retreat
Zurich dropped 118 Swiss francs, or 17 percent, to 570, leading Europe Stoxx 50
losses. The sixth-largest European insurer forecast profit this year of between
$1.8 billion and $2 billion, down from $2.1 billion in 2000, because of the weaker
U.S. economy, a strong U.S. dollar and low investment income.
Axa SA, France's largest insurer, fell 9.2 euros, or 7.5 percent, to 113.7. Allianz
AG, Europe's second-biggest insurer, dropped 15.77 euros, or 4.8 percent, to
310.73.
Twenty-five shares declined for every two that advanced in the broad Stoxx index,
which retreated 9.56 points, or 3.1 percent, to 303.49.
The Europe Stoxx 50, which has slid 27 percent from its record high close, is
down 17 percent in 2001 and headed for its second-worst quarter. It's lost more
than 705 billion euros of market value this year, more than three times the
current market value of BP Amoco Plc, the No. 3 publicly traded oil company.
The Stoxx technology group has shed 35 percent so far in 2001, leading group
losses and extending last year's 16 percent drop. It fell 29 percent in the final
three quarters of 2000 after more than doubling in value in the prior two quarters.
Insanity
The rise and fall of technology shares was ``the biggest financial insanity ever in
any nation in history,'' Sir John Templeton, former head of Templeton Worldwide
Inc., told NewsMax.com. While the market will eventually recover, he added, it
may be in for ``a nine-year bear market.''
The slowdown in U.S. growth ``may be more significant than previously
anticipated'' and could ``have implications for world economic growth and thus for
the euro zone,'' Duisenberg said in a speech. French consumer spending fell 0.9
percent last month from January, national statistics office Insee said.
``Even the ECB are waking up to the fact that there's a significantly weaker
European growth story now,'' said Philip Isherwood, European equity strategist at
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London. ``We've got panic in the markets and
low valuations, but you don't have earnings realism from analysts.''
Sonera fell 80 cents, or 8.1 percent, to 9.1 euros. Finland's government, which
owns 53 percent of the nation's biggest phone company, yesterday named a new
chairman and also scrapped Sonera's supervisory board.
Laird Group, Lafarge, Capital Radio
Laird Group Plc slumped 74.5p, or 28 percent, to 194.5. The U.K. maker of
industrial products said stockpiling of electronics by customers amid the U.S.
economic slowdown will hurt first-half earnings.
BPB Plc declined 33p, or 13 percent, to 221. The world's largest producer of
gypsum said slowing economic growth in North America and Germany, rising
gas prices and wet weather in Europe will erode profit in the second half of fiscal
2001.
Lafarge SA lost 8.05 euros, or 7.9 percent, to 94.15. The biggest
building-materials company got about 25 percent of 1999 sales from North
America.
Holderbank Financiere Glarus AG fell 97 Swiss francs, or 5.5 percent, to 1,655.
The largest cement maker garnered 22 percent of revenue from North America in
1999.
Capital Radio Plc shed 212.5p, or 24 percent, to 665, extending a four-day, 17
percent loss. The U.K.'s biggest commercial radio broadcaster cut it forecast for
first-half revenue, citing slower second-quarter advertising sales.
GWR Group, Pearson, Deutsche Bank
GWR Group Plc, owner of the U.K.'s second-largest commercial radio station,
fell 85p, or 17 percent, to 420. Scottish Radio Holdings Plc dropped 100p, or 6.8
percent, to 1,375.
Pearson Plc and other media companies fell after Tribune Co., the No. 3 U.S.
newspaper publisher, cut first-quarter profit estimates, blaming a drop in
advertising sales.
Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times newspaper, declined 99p, or 7.4
percent, to 1,232, and Grupo Prisa SA, Spain's biggest media company, shed
1.25 euros, or 8.1 percent, to 14.2. Independent News & Media Plc, Ireland's
largest newspaper publisher, fell 39 cents, or 15 percent, to 2.3 euros.
UBS AG and other lenders with investment-banking units fell on concern weaker
U.S. and Europe economies will hit earnings. U.S. rivals including Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., have reported
lower first-quarter profits.
UBS, the biggest Swiss bank, dropped 14.5 francs, or 6.2 percent, to 219.5, and
second-ranking Credit Suisse Group lost 11 francs, or 3.8 percent, to 282.
Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's largest lender, fell 3.06 euros, or 3.9 percent, to
74.64.
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Take care, it's Jungle Warfare out there today,
Roebear |
