Next week, zero
October 10, 2008 6:48 AM   Subscribe

Dow hits 7,882 The Dow Jones industrial average just 7,882 points a few minutes after opening, following massive losses (2) across the globe last night. Iceland, teetering on bankruptcy halts trading of it's markets.
posted by delmoi (54 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: This seems like basically a market snapshot, which is not trying very hard. Maybe try and figure out a more interesting way to approach this? -- cortex



 
I get the point - and these are certainly interesting times.

Buuuuut, is a post leading off with the current level of a stock index along with some mainstream news articles really the best of the web? I imagine those who are interested can keep a tab open with google finance...
posted by Hello, Revelers! I am Captain Lavender! at 6:51 AM on October 10, 2008


*checks Metafilter before looking for work, grimaces, pours whiskey*
posted by Kwine at 6:52 AM on October 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


(oops, that should say 'just hit 7,882')
posted by delmoi at 6:53 AM on October 10, 2008


While this is mostly clearly Clinton's fault, I would not rule out President Obama having a time machine.
posted by DU at 6:55 AM on October 10, 2008 [6 favorites]


This thread is useless without tickers.
posted by bondcliff at 6:56 AM on October 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


My favorite part of this mess was the dispassionate CNN reporters this morning deadpanning direly worded statements like they were stories about a change in the prices of bulk paper.

"Massive drops today all over the world as markets plunge" (screen shows ginormous red down arrow and yellow zigzags) and investors wonder whether or not to kill themselves (images of traders looking scared and sad, hands on heads). Now over to Ally Johnson to talk about what weapons they might choose. Ally?"
posted by cashman at 6:56 AM on October 10, 2008


Sell all your shares in this FPP. It's got nowhere to go but down.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:56 AM on October 10, 2008


So, where is this wall everyone talks about putting people up against?
posted by stavrogin at 6:57 AM on October 10, 2008


Maybe that's why this guy is about to goatse [NSFW] his own head
posted by coachfortner at 6:58 AM on October 10, 2008




I'm going to fix things Monday.
posted by zeoslap at 6:59 AM on October 10, 2008


Being dutch, I naturally follow the amsterdam index (^AEX), and apart from a dip in 2003, you have to go back to 1996 to see a time when they were as low as today... The dow is trying to keep up with that downward direction, I guess..
posted by DreamerFi at 6:59 AM on October 10, 2008


Buuuuut, is a post leading off with the current level of a stock index along with some mainstream news articles really the best of the web?

Hey, let's save our doomsaying for the economy. We don't want it to run out before the money does.
posted by Nattie at 6:59 AM on October 10, 2008


Wait until about 3:00 pm. I think it is going to get ugly.
posted by Mr_Zero at 7:01 AM on October 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


Just to think, within months, my lovely Manhattan will soon be deserted of human life except for Will Smith, running through the abandoned streets, asking "why" to a god that has long forgotten us
posted by Damn That Television at 7:02 AM on October 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


Thank Senator McCain, my friends, for suspending his campaign and sorting this whole mess out.
posted by nitsuj at 7:03 AM on October 10, 2008 [4 favorites]


I like watching the end of the world on the blue.

You guys are more fun than the other people on the internet.
posted by Lord_Pall at 7:06 AM on October 10, 2008




The silver lining is that this will finally (hopefully) kill off the moronic plan to privatize Social Security. Just imagine the fallout if people's "individually controlled, individually invested" Social Security accounts were fully exposed to these markets. Choose this, you fuckers.
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:07 AM on October 10, 2008


I am going to refinance my house this weekend, for hopefully more than it's worth, leverage myself as deeply as I can, and through it all in the market! It can only go up from here, right? And my home is appreciating at 10% a year (at least that what the tax man keeps telling me).

I'm going to retire rich in 5 years!

I don't care if this is what got people in trouble the first time. It's going to work this time, dammit!
posted by cjorgensen at 7:07 AM on October 10, 2008


Metafilter is a place where educated people come to discuss topics of interest. That includes current events, which become impossible to ignore when they are like a tsunami engulfing everyone worldwide. It was never explicitly written in Metafilter's rules that people can't discuss current events, and in a time of crisis, people need the healthy insight provided by those they know and trust to be thoughtful and well-educated on matters which affect them. Metafilter provides that.
posted by PigAlien at 7:08 AM on October 10, 2008 [5 favorites]


Now 7,883 isn't too bad, but 7,882 JESUS CHRIST NO
posted by norabarnacl3 at 7:08 AM on October 10, 2008


Australian markets closed at their lowest in more than twenty years! TWENTY! I guess I could deal with Turnbull as Il Duce. We could anschluss up with New Zealand and try invading something. Most entertaining way to spend a depression, really.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 7:08 AM on October 10, 2008


Just to think, within months, my lovely Manhattan will soon be deserted of human life except for Will Smith, running through the abandoned streets, asking "why" to a god that has long forgotten us

C'mon. Look at the upside. Think about the wonderful apartments we'll be able to grab when the backwards baseball hat and polo shirt crowd flees the city.

Think positive.
posted by jason's_planet at 7:08 AM on October 10, 2008


I've never seen that before.
posted by WPW at 7:08 AM on October 10, 2008


I blame Obama's middle name and his association with Ayers.
posted by fleetmouse at 7:08 AM on October 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


Pfft. 7882 was so fifteen minutes ago. Dow 8614, +35 bitches!
posted by Pastabagel at 7:09 AM on October 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


Oh, and buy buy buy!!! Now's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reduce your basis! Talk about "buy low, sell high!"
posted by PigAlien at 7:09 AM on October 10, 2008


Being dutch, I naturally follow the amsterdam index (^AEX), and apart from a dip in 2003, you have to go back to 1996 to see a time when they were as low as today... The dow is trying to keep up with that downward direction, I guess...

But ... you're long on tulips ... am I right? Am I right?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:09 AM on October 10, 2008 [3 favorites]


Yesterday, I saw a picture of a trader pointing at his temple with his hand shaped like a gun. Does anyone know of any real personal drama on the trading floor or in any part of the financial world? Public mental breakdowns? Suicides? Office murders? Religious conversions? Etc.? (Not just for the lulz. Part of me is actually concerned.)
posted by cowbellemoo at 7:10 AM on October 10, 2008


Many small businesses rely on loans to meet payroll. With so little liquidity, a lot of workers are going to say goodbye.
posted by plexi at 7:10 AM on October 10, 2008


Tulips aren't such a great investment.
posted by WPW at 7:10 AM on October 10, 2008


Never was a tumblelog more aptly named than The Dow Jones tumblelog.
posted by nthdegx at 7:11 AM on October 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


ticker -- DDT -100.3 MTV -6.66 AVN +0.01 We're all gonna die!!! R2D2 -3.44 IBM -6.45 -- /ticker
posted by Pollomacho at 7:11 AM on October 10, 2008


8,541.91

UR DED CAT

IT HAZ A BOUNSE
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:12 AM on October 10, 2008 [5 favorites]


Bin Laden did say he wanted to bankrupt the US. He wasn't wrong that we would bankrupt ourselves, but Bin Laden had nothing to do with the sub-prime crisis or Phil Gramm's destroying Glass-Steagal. The Iraq war hasn't helped our coffers, but the truth is without this current crisis, Iraq alone wouldn't have bankrupted us.
posted by PigAlien at 7:13 AM on October 10, 2008


Uh.... not that I'm defending the Iraq war, I'm 100% against it. But, its still not true to say the Iraq war, or the War on Terror (R) has bankrupted America (yet).
posted by PigAlien at 7:14 AM on October 10, 2008


The Fear Index is off the chart.
posted by stbalbach at 7:14 AM on October 10, 2008


The rolling crisis in the global economy is the most serious news event of some time. You'd have to be hiding under a rock to have missed it, but I'm happy to have it on the Front Page for discussion and more links. I can't be the only one who comes to MeFi to get the filtered view of what's going on.
posted by theora55 at 7:15 AM on October 10, 2008 [2 favorites]


My bloomberg terminal just locked up. That can't be a good sign.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:16 AM on October 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


GO LONG TULIPS AND FEAR
posted by Pastabagel at 7:16 AM on October 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


Bin Laden did say he wanted to bankrupt the US. He wasn't wrong that we would bankrupt ourselves, but Bin Laden had nothing to do with the sub-prime crisis or Phil Gramm's destroying Glass-Steagal. The Iraq war hasn't helped our coffers, but the truth is without this current crisis, Iraq alone wouldn't have bankrupted us.

I am glad it is just a coincidence. In unrelated news did you see that the Abu Dhabi government’s investment vehicle Mubadala more than doubled its stake in AMD from the existing 8.1 percent to 19.3 percent.
posted by Mr_Zero at 7:18 AM on October 10, 2008


The thing about putting the quote in there is that the market is so volatile. 10:17 am EDT, and it's at 8477–roughly where it starrted this am.
posted by Mister_A at 7:19 AM on October 10, 2008


Well, at least oil is cheap again. Hurrah!
posted by you just lost the game at 7:19 AM on October 10, 2008


What I don't understand - and please help me on this - is that the stock market only drops when people selling outnumber people buying... You also don't lose money until you sell... Why wouldn't people just hold tight? Clearly, this is just self-fulfilling prophecy panic type stuff, isn't it? Are people really so stupid? Wouldn't it be less risky to just hold onto a stock and risk that company going bankrupt? If you're diversified, any one company going bankrupt shouldn't adversely affect your portfolio any more than a drop in the stock price.
posted by PigAlien at 7:19 AM on October 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


Yoou make a big mistake in watching the Dow as it goes this and that way. Instead, watch this
http://tbm.thebigmoney.com/articles/explainer/2008/10/09/dont-watch-dow
posted by Postroad at 7:21 AM on October 10, 2008


Bloombergs are the new Xbox.

Speaking of the Fear index, did the VIX really hit 70 today? Holy poop.

FYI, I can't recall a bottom in a market crash being put in on a Friday. So unless the finance ministers meeting this weekend promise delicious pies and teddy bears for traders, Monday is going to be downright educational.
posted by Pastabagel at 7:21 AM on October 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


PigAlien, the answers are mostly "yes." And, as long as the companies involved don't actually go belly up, many investors will snap up great stock values as a result of this volatility.
posted by Mister_A at 7:21 AM on October 10, 2008


PigAlien, the answers are mostly "yes." And, as long as the companies involved don't actually go belly up, many investors will snap up great stock values as a result of this volatility.
posted by Mister_A at 7:21 AM on October 10, 2008


(from the second link)
“It is a must for the G-7 countries, especially the U.S., to make a firm commitment to public fund injections for recapitalization of banks in trouble, in order to see the stock market pull out of the doldrums,” Hideyuki Suzuki, an analyst at Morningstar Japan told Reuters. “If the G-7 nations failed to do so, its raison d’être will be called into question for sure.”

ok, i'll do it...do we NEED the G-7? do we even NEED the stock market?
posted by sexyrobot at 7:22 AM on October 10, 2008


(i'm just not feeling the NEED to pay for other people's gambling)
posted by sexyrobot at 7:23 AM on October 10, 2008


Actually rumor has it that Monday will be a banking holiday!!!!!1!!!
posted by Horatius at 7:25 AM on October 10, 2008


Well, at least oil is cheap again. Hurrah!

That's because the heroic Republicans are promising to drill baby drill! America's 3% of proven global reserves will be divided amongst the world's oil-thirsty like so many loaves and fishes when Jebus returns.
posted by fleetmouse at 7:26 AM on October 10, 2008


Are people really so stupid?

At this point in history, after all which has gone before us, across so many realms of human endeavor, this question has been comprehensively answered.

Yes.
posted by aramaic at 7:28 AM on October 10, 2008 [1 favorite]


« Older Blind Muslims with guide dogs   |   Death with dignity Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments