Tag Archives: Stock Market

Wall Street has worst start to year ever

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday, ending a volatile week with their worst five-day start to a year ever, as sliding oil prices and lingering worries about the global economy offset upbeat U.S. job growth.

Both the Dow and S&P 500 had their worst five-day starts in history, with the Dow falling 6.2 percent for the week and S&P 500 sliding 6 percent. The Nasdaq was down 7.3 percent this week.

All three indexes saw losses accelerating into the close.

The market had opened higher after data showing U.S. nonfarm payrolls surged in December and the unemployment rate held steady. But that was not enough to keep stocks in positive territory.

Oil prices fell for a fifth day and Brent lost 10 percent for the week, while the S&P energy sector <.SPNY> also extended this week’s slide, ending the day down 1.3 percent.

Fears of a slowdown in China and the global economy spooked investors this week, creating a turbulent start to the trading year.

“The start of the year is very poor, so that’s got investors on the defensive,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama.

“In the face of weakening global growth … it’s difficult to find reasons to commit money at this point even if one is bullish,” he said, adding that he expects stocks to rebound from these oversold conditions next week.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 167.65 points, or 1.02 percent, to 16,346.45, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 21.06 points, or 1.08 percent, to 1,922.03 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 45.80 points, or 0.98 percent, to 4,643.63.

The CBOE Volatility Index <.VIX> ended up 8.1 percent Friday at 27.01, its highest close since Sept. 28.

All 10 S&P 500 sectors ended with declines.

Gap <GPS.N> sank 14.3 percent to $22.91 after the apparel retailer reported a larger-than-expected drop in December same-store sales, while Container Store <TCS.N> slumped 41.2 percent to $4.22, a day after storage products retailer’s fourth-quarter profit forecast missed estimates.

Apple <AAPL.O> shares, however, snapped their three-day losing streak and were up 0.5 percent at $96.96.

Volume was again heavy. About 8.9 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, well above the 7.3 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.

NYSE declining issues outnumbered advancing ones 2,092 to 980, for a 2.13-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 2,018 issues fell and 812 advanced for a 2.49-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and 93 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 13 new highs and 312 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Nick Zieminski)

China lets yuan slide, starts fight to halt turbulence

By Lu Jianxin and Patrick Graham

SHANGHAI/LONDON (Reuters) – China allowed the biggest fall in the yuan in five months on Thursday, pressuring regional currencies and sending global stock markets tumbling as investors feared it would trigger competitive devaluations.

For the second time this week China’s stock markets were suspended for the day before an announcement late in the evening in Shanghai that authorities were abandoning the new circuit-breaking mechanism for halting trade in overly volatile markets.

That heightened anticipation about how Chinese markets may respond on Friday.

The People’s Bank of China shocked traders by setting the official midpoint rate on the yuan, also known as the renminbi (RMB), 0.5 percent weaker at 6.5646 per dollar on Thursday, the lowest since March 2011.

That tracked record losses in the more open offshore currency market and was the biggest daily fall since an abrupt devaluation of nearly 2 percent last August.

But dealers said the PBOC had then intervened heavily to reverse a more than 1 percent fall in offshore rates for the yuan after they hit a record low of 6.7600 per dollar.

The yuan took back all of its losses to stand a quarter of a percent stronger at 6.6755 in European and U.S. trade.

“It’s very similar to the previous round (in August) where they weaken the official rate and then intervene against the dollar offshore to beat back the speculators,” said a yuan trader with one international bank in London.

“That would be a way of starting to stabilize the market.”

The PBOC’s China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) repeated on Thursday that there was no basis for the yuan’s continuous depreciation and that it was stable against a basket of currencies in 2015.

But the central bank’s fixings have also helped drive the yuan down this week against other major currencies, including a 3.5 percent fall against the yen and 0.8 percent against the euro.

That raised concerns that China might be aiming for a competitive devaluation to help its struggling exporters.

“That’s the fear of the market,” said Sim Moh Siong, FX strategist for Bank of Singapore, adding that it was a zero sum game as other currencies weakened in response, and the end result would be greater volatility.

Others were unsure what policy Beijing was pursuing.

“Frankly speaking, we are still not quite sure where the PBOC boundary is at the current stage,” said Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC).

“The fear of the unknown has become the largest risk for RMB in the near term, despite China’s sizable current account surplus.”

The Australian dollar, often used by foreign exchange dealers as a liquid proxy for the yuan, fell more than half a U.S. cent. The Korean won, however, recovered almost all of its initial falls with banks saying the Bank of Korea had probably also intervened to support the currency.

OCBC noted that against a basket of currencies, the RMB index was still only fractionally down for 2016.

ANZ bank said in a note that the PBOC’s action would nevertheless “create one-way expectation of RMB depreciation, propelling capital flight and leading to significant financial instability”.

DECLINING RESERVES

Data on Thursday showed China’s foreign exchange reserves fell by the most on record last month, down $108 billion in December alone and by $513 billion overall last year.

That suggests an accelerating outflow of money from China which may largely be the result of the opening up of its financial markets over the past year, but also a sign that the world’s second-largest economy is in deepening trouble.

Michael Every, Rabobank’s Head of Markets Research, Asia-Pacific, said once Beijing had won the diplomatic triumph of getting the yuan included in the International Monetary Fund’s reserve currency basket in November, he expected policymakers would let it slip to cope with a slowing, deflationary economy.

“Why people are panicked is because (i) they didn’t see this coming, and/or (ii) the global economy needs a consumer of last resort, and China is sending a signal that they won’t be it,” he added.

A sustained depreciation in the yuan puts pressure on other Asian countries to weaken their currencies and makes commodities denominated in U.S. dollars more expensive for Chinese buyers, which could further depress demand and commodity prices.

Shanghai stocks slid 7.3 percent to trigger the halt in trading, a repeat performance of Monday’s sudden tumble. Japan’s Nikkei shed 2.3 percent in sympathy, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was down 2.8 percent.

The halt mechanism, intended to calm market volatility, was instead “killing investors” and creating panic, a retail investor in Guangzhou complained.

China’s securities regulator also unveiled new rules on Thursday to restrict selling by big shareholders who have been locked into their holdings for six months since Beijing banned them from offloading stocks to arrest a summer market crash.

In rules that take effect on Jan. 9, they can’t sell more than 1 percent of a listed company’s share capital every three months.

“This is crazy,” said Alberto Forchielli, founder of Mandarin Capital Partners. “Chinese regulators set off on this path in July and they cannot get out of it. They have ruined whatever hope investors still had in the market.”

(Reporting by Lu Jianxin, Lee Chyen Yee and Samuel Shen in Shanghai and Patrick Graham in London; Additional reporting by Lisa Jucca and Masayuki Kitano; Writing by Wayne Cole and Will Waterman; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

Global stocks, oil tumble as China economy concerns mount

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Shares on major exchanges fell for a sixth straight day on Thursday and crude oil prices touched multi-year lows as investors fretted over the state of China’s economy and its ability to stabilize its stock market.

In a move that deepened concerns over China’s economic health, the People’s Bank of China set the yuan midpoint rate lower for an eighth consecutive day. The 0.5 percent decline was the biggest between daily fixings since August.

China suspended a circuit breaker implemented at the start of 2016 that stopped trading for the day when the benchmark index fell 7 percent, a halt already triggered twice this week. Analysts and investors said the mechanism, put in place to avoid market volatility, may have backfired.

“People see the weakness in China and in the overall equity market and think there’s going to be an impact on corporations here in the United States,” said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth in New York.

Rounding out its worst four-day start to a year in more than a century, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 392.41 points, or 2.32 percent, to 16,514.1.

The S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 47.17 points, or 2.37 percent, to 1,943.09 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 146.34 points, or 3.03 percent, to 4,689.43.

A gauge of major stock markets globally <.MIWD00000PUS> fell 2.2 percent and Nikkei futures <NKc1> were down 2.6 percent.

CURRENCY WAR BREWING

Investors fear China’s economy is even weaker than had been imagined, with Beijing, in a bid to help exporters, allowing the yuan’s depreciation to accelerate. The move risks triggering a cycle of competitive devaluation, said Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray.

The U.S. dollar tumbled 0.9 percent against a basket of currencies <.DXY>, losing 1.4 percent to $1.0929 versus the euro <EUR=> and 0.7 percent to the yen <JPY=> at 117.63.

Brent crude cut a loss of more than 6 percent to trade down 1.6 percent, while U.S. crude <CLc1>, down as much as 5.5 percent earlier, was down 2.3 percent.

The benchmark U.S. Treasury yield <US10YT=RR> touched its lowest since late October. U.S. 10-year Treasury notes were last up 8/32 in price to yield 2.1491 percent, from 2.177 percent late on Wednesday.

Gold touched $1,110 an ounce for the first time in nine weeks as the dollar fell and investors rushed into perceived havens. Spot gold <XAU=> rose 1.35 percent to $1,109.10 an ounce. Its 4.6 percent gain up to Thursday was the best four-day run for gold in a year.

Copper prices <CMCU3> touched a low not seen since May 2009.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Nick Zieminski, Meredith Mazzilli and Dan Grebler)

Wall Street Begins Year Sharply Lower After China Selloff

By Caroline Valetkevitch

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks began 2016 sharply lower on Monday, with the Dow marking its worst start to a year since 2008, after weak Chinese economic data fanned fears of a global slowdown.

Indexes partly recovered late in the session, following a turnaround in oil prices that caused energy shares to cut losses. At its low for the day, the Dow was down 467 points and was headed for its worst first-day percentage drop since 1932.

Surveys showed factory activity in the world’s second-largest economy shrank sharply in December, sparking a 7-percent slide in Chinese shares that triggered a trading halt. Adding to investors’ worries, China’s central bank fixed the yuan at a 4-1/2 year low, further weakening it against the dollar.

U.S. data sparked further concern as factory activity weakened unexpectedly in December, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

“There was the turmoil overnight overseas that kind of set the tone … (but) all of the negatives out there have been out there for a while,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.

“The fact that we closed down on the year, the Fed tightened, it crystallized in investors’ minds that we’re not in the environment we were in throughout most of the recovery.”

The selloff was widespread but not as deep as the slide caused by worries of a China-led global slowdown in August, when the Dow tumbled more than 1,000 points at one point.

Nasdaq led the day’s decline and Amazon <AMZN.O>, down 5.8 percent at $636.99, weighed the most on the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq, while the Nasdaq Biotech Index <NBI> dropped 3.2 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average <DJI> closed down 276.09 points, or 1.58 percent, to 17,148.94, the S&amp;P 500 <SPX> lost 31.28 points, or 1.53 percent, to 2,012.66 and the Nasdaq Composite <IXIC> dropped 104.32 points, or 2.08 percent, to 4,903.09.

Both the S&amp;P 500 and the Nasdaq had their worst starts to a year since 2001.

All 10 S&P sectors ended lower, but the energy index <SPNY> was down the least, with a loss of just 0.2 percent.

Crude oil ended a volatile session down slightly following concern about Middle East tensions, but Brent turned higher late.

Tesla <TSLA.O> fell 6.9 percent to $223.41. The electric car maker delivered 17,400 vehicles in the fourth quarter, just above the low end of its guidance.

About 8.5 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, above the 7.2 billion daily average for the past 20 trading days, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,127 to 977, for a 2.18-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 2,202 issues fell and 652 advanced for a 3.38-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 1 new 52-week highs and 14 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 12 new highs and 113 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Nick Zieminski)

Reuters: Wall St. dips as jobs data boosts odds of December rate hike

Photo courtesy of Reuters/Brendan McDermid

By Abhiram Nandakumar

(Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes were little changed in choppy morning trading on Friday after a stronger-than-anticipated jobs report hardened the chance that the Federal Reserve would finally raise interest rates in December.

Eight of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower, with the interest-rate sensitive utilities sector’s <.SPLRCU> 3.42 percent decline easily the worst. The financials sector <.SPSY> was up 1.25 percent, led by bank stocks.

Job growth in October was the best since December 2014, while the unemployment rate fell to 5 percent, the lowest since April 2008. The jobless rate is now at a level many Fed officials view as consistent with full employment.

“In the short term, this is likely to trigger increased volatility, but if rates edge up and the world doesn’t end, markets will start gaining confidence,” said Robert Craig, Private Client Investment Manager at MB Capital in London.

“For a while now, it has felt like the Fed has wanted to clear the psychological hurdle of that first rate rise, and it’s now got that opportunity.”

Traders raised the odds of a hike in December to 70 percent from the 58 percent just before the jobs data was released, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch program.

The dollar <.DXY> rose to a 6-1/2 month high after the data.

Higher rates increase borrowing costs for companies, while a strong dollar hurts their income from overseas markets.

At 10:44 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 2.34 points, or 0.01 percent, at 17,865.77.

The S&P 500 <.SPX> was down 5.03 points, or 0.24 percent, at 2,094.9 and the Nasdaq Composite index <.IXIC> was up 5.21 points, or 0.1 percent, at 5,132.95.

Among financial stocks, JPMorgan <JPM.N> rose 3 percent and gave the biggest boost to the S&P 500, followed by Bank of America <BAC.N>, up 3.8 percent and Citigroup <C.N>, up 3.2 percent.

Goldman <GS.N> rose 3.3 percent and was the biggest influence on the Dow, followed by Disney <DIS.N>, which was up 2.6 percent after reporting a higher-than-expected profit.

Exxon <XOM.N> was down 1.5 percent to $83.59, the biggest drag on the S&P, after the New York attorney general launched an investigation into whether the company misled the public and shareholders about the risks of climate change.

Energy stocks <.SPNY> fell 1 percent as crude oil prices slipped. Chevron <CVX.N> shed 2 percent and weighed the most on the Dow.

TripAdvisor <TRIP.O> slumped 10 percent to $74.82, while Kraft Heinz <KHC.O> was down 4 percent at $72.49 after both reported quarterly results below estimates. Kraft was the biggest drag on Nasdaq.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,222 to 758. On the Nasdaq, 1,452 issues fell and 1,126 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed 11 new 52-week highs and six new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 107 new highs and 50 new lows.

 

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Charles Mikolajczak; Editing by Savio D’Souza)

Cyber security stocks get filip from Talk hack attack

Photo courtesy of Reuters/Stefan Wermuth

LONDON (Reuters) – The hacking scandal at broadband provider TalkTalk has heightened interest in stocks and companies dealing in cyber security, with some fund managers betting on more growth in the sector.

British police said on Friday that they had arrested a second teenager in connection with the breach at TalkTalk, which may have led to the theft of personal data from among the company’s more than 4 million customers.

TalkTalk was not the first such incident, but traders and investors said it should re-ignite interest in companies offering protection against hack attacks.

Market research firm Gartner has estimated that global spending on IT security is set to increase 8.2 percent in 2015 to $77 billion. Corporations around the world will spend $101 billion on information security in 2018, Gartner says.

That has caught the attention of financial markets. The ISPY exchange-traded-fund, which lets investors hold a basket of cyber security stocks – such as Cisco Systems and Sophos Group – has risen around 3 percent.

“As cyber crime continues to grow, governments and companies are prioritising cyber security as an essential investment. This is a sector we can expect to dominate headlines and corporate budgets,” said Kris Monaco, the head of ISE ETF Ventures.

Others focused on some relatively small British stocks whose shares have risen, in contrast to those of TalkTalk whose stock has fallen 6 percent in the last week.

Falanx Group has climbed 15 percent over that same period. NCC Group and Corero Network Security – an offshoot of the former Corero software business – have risen 3 percent.

Corero’s products include software that protects against attacks on Internet sites and domain addresses.

NCC has similar services, including one to test how vulnerable a company is to “phishing” – where internal emails are hacked by someone posing as an employee or outside contact – while Falanx has services monitoring clients’ computer infrastructure for signs of suspicious activity.

John Blamire, a former British Army officer who is chief executive at Falanx, said customer interest had risen since the attack on TalkTalk.

“Incidents such as the one at TalkTalk actively brings attention to organizations such as ours,” he said.

To be sure, stocks such as these would carry the usual risks associated with “small cap” stocks with a relatively small market valuation – less liquidity, which can then make them more prone to a slump and harder to sell than bigger stocks.

Nevertheless, they have attracted some big-name investment houses, with Liontrust Asset Management holding a near 10 percent stake in NCC while Blackrock Investment Management has a near 3 percent holding in Corero. Both Liontrust and Blackrock declined to comment on those holdings.

Mark Slater, chief investment officer at Slater Investments, holds around 3 million NCC shares in his company’s portfolio, and he expected NCC and others to continue to grow.

“The nature of the Internet makes it open to attack. These problems are not going to go away.”

(By Sudip Kar-Gupta; Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Lionel Laurent, Larry King)

Global stocks dip, bond yields rise as Fed zest fades

Photo courtesy of Reuters/Brendan McDermid

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock markets around the world fell and bond yields rose as investors weighed the implications that a U.S. interest rate rise before the end of the year would have for the global economy and markets.

The Federal Reserve, which kept its rates on hold as expected on Wednesday, took the unusual step of strengthening its language about timing in its statement, making it clear that a December rate hike was still possible. The Fed also removed a previous warning about slowing global growth.

Wall Street was lower, giving up some of Wednesday’s gains. The U.S. stock market initially reacted negatively to the Fed statement, but later reversed course to end near the day’s highs on Wednesday.

The MSCI All-Country World Index <.MIWD00000PUS> has recovered most of the losses that occurred beginning in mid-August on worries about slowed worldwide demand and the Fed’s plans. It was last down 0.6 percent on Thursday.

U.S. Treasury yields continued Wednesday’s rise after the Fed explicitly referred in its statement at the end of its two-day policy meeting to conditions necessary “to raise the target range at its next meeting”. Reference to a particular meeting is rare for the Fed.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose 7 basis points to 2.16 percent <US10YT=RR>. The two-year note’s yield was 0.73 percent, highest since late September.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 32.98 points, or 0.19 percent, to 17,746.54, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 1.42 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,088.93 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 12.32 points, or 0.24 percent, to 5,083.38.

The first estimate of third quarter U.S. growth, released on Thursday, showed the world’s biggest economy expanded at a 1.5 percent annualized pace, below the expected 1.6 percent. But economists expect growth to pick up in the fourth quarter, given strong consumer spending figures.

In Europe the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> was down 0.2 percent at 1,481 points. Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei share average <.N225> gained 0.2 percent to close at 18,935.71.

Many investors are still not convinced about a rate lift-off given a recent run of soft U.S. data, making economic releases in coming weeks more crucial in determining a December move.

Economists expect a key U.S. manufacturing index due Monday <USPMI=ECI> to show the first contraction in the sector in 2-1/2 years, which would not be conducive for a rate hike.

The Fed’s stance contrasts to the European Central Bank and other major central banks, a factor that is expected to underpin the dollar. The Fed and ECB hold policy decisions within two weeks of each other in December.

The ECB last week signaled its readiness to inject more stimulus to boost prices and the People’s Bank of China followed with its sixth interest rate cut in less than a year.

The dollar gave back its earlier gains, with the euro trading 0.4 percent higher on the day at $1.0966 <EUR=>, having skidded to a 2-1/2 month low of $1.0826 overnight.

Crude oil futures were slightly higher one day after soaring more than 6 percent as the U.S. government reported an inventory build.

U.S. crude <CLc1> rose 0.4 percent to $46.11 a barrel. Brent <LCOc1> was steady at $49.05. Spot gold <XAU=> fell 2 percent to $1,150 an ounce.

(By David Gaffen; Additional reporting by Anirban Nag; Editing by Gareth Jones and Nick Zieminski)

The Stock Markets Of The 10 Largest Global Economies Are All Crashing

God’s timing is exact and believe me in this ministry each guest that we have on the Jim Bakker Show has come at the perfect time.  This is very true in the case of Michael Snyder.  We are in no way experts on the stock market and the world economy. Michael keeps his fingers on the pulse of the financial markets all over the globe. He knows how to communicate what the media does not. I have no doubt that God intended for his insight to be heard and I felt urgently led to share his knowledge with you.

There IS a great shaking coming to America.    

“Over the past sixty days we have seen absolutely extraordinary things happen all over the planet, and yet some people are not even paying attention because they did not meet their preconceived notions of how events should play out.    And this is just the beginning.”  ~Michael Snyder  

Love,

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The following was originally posted by Michael Snyder on The Economic Collapse blog

The Stock Markets Of The 10 Largest Global Economies Are All Crashing

You would think that the simultaneous crashing of all of the largest stock markets around the world would be very big news.  But so far the mainstream media in the United States is treating it like it isn’t really a big deal.  Over the last sixty days, we have witnessed the most significant global stock market decline since the fall of 2008, and yet most people still seem to think that this is just a temporary “bump in the road” and that the bull market will soon resume.  Hopefully they are right.

When the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 777 points on September 29th, 2008 everyone freaked out and rightly so.  But a stock market crash doesn’t have to be limited to a single day.  Since the peak of the market earlier this year, the Dow is down almost three times as much as that 777 point crash back in 2008.

Over the last sixty days, we have seen the 8th largest single day stock market crash in U.S. history on a point basis and the 10th largest single day stock market crash in U.S. history on a point basis.  You would think that this would be enough to wake people up, but most Americans still don’t seem very alarmed.  And of course what has happened to U.S. stocks so far is quite mild compared to what has been going on in the rest of the world.

Right now, stock market wealth is being wiped out all over the planet, and none of the largest global economies have been exempt from this.  The following is a summary of what we have seen in recent days…

#1 The United States – The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down more than 2000 points since the peak of the market.  Last month we saw stocks decline by more than 500 points on consecutive trading days for the first time ever, and there has not been this much turmoil in U.S. markets since the fall of 2008.

#2 China – The Shanghai Composite Index has plummeted nearly 40 percent since hitting a peak earlier this year.  The Chinese economy is steadily slowing down, and we just learned that China’s manufacturing index has hit a 78 month low.

#3 Japan – The Nikkei has experienced extremely violent moves recently, and it is now down more than 3000 points from the peak that was hit earlier in 2015.  The Japanese economy and the Japanese financial system are both basket cases at this point, and it isn’t going to take much to push Japan into a full-blown financial collapse.

#4 Germany – Almost one-fourth of the value of German stocks has already been wiped out, and this crash threatens to get much worse.  The Volkswagen emissions scandal is making headlines all over the globe, and don’t forget to watch for massive trouble at Germany’s biggest bank.

#5 The United Kingdom – British stocks are down about 16 percent from the peak of the market, and the UK economy is definitely on shaky ground.

#6 France – French stocks have declined nearly 18 percent, and it has become exceedingly apparent that France is on the exact same path that Greece has already gone down.

#7 Brazil – Brazil is the epicenter of the South American financial crisis of 2015.  Stocks in Brazil have plunged more than 12,000 points since the peak, and the nation has already officially entered a new recession.

#8 Italy – Watch Italy.  Italian stocks are already down 15 percent, and look for the Italian economy to make very big headlines in the months ahead.

#9 India – Stocks in India have now dropped close to 4000 points, and analysts are deeply concerned about this major exporting nation as global trade continues to contract.

#10 Russia – Even though the price of oil has crashed, Russia is actually doing better than almost everyone else on this list.  Russian stocks have fallen by about 10 percent so far, and if the price of oil stays this low the Russian financial system will continue to suffer.

What we are witnessing now is the continuation of a cycle of financial downturns that has happened every seven years.  The following is a summary of how this cycle has played out over the past 50 years…

  • It started in 1966 with a 20 percent stock market crash.
  • Seven years later, the market lost another 45 percent (1973-74).
  • Seven years later was the beginning of the “hard recession” (1980).
  • Seven years later was the Black Monday crash of 1987.
  • Seven years later was the bond market crash of 1994.
  • Seven years later was 9/11 and the 2001 tech bubble collapse.
  • Seven years later was the 2008 global financial collapse.
  • 2015: What’s next?

A lot of people were expecting something “big” to happen on September 14th and were disappointed when nothing happened.

But the truth is that it has never been about looking at any one particular day.  Over the past sixty days we have seen absolutely extraordinary things happen all over the planet, and yet some people are not even paying attention because they did not meet their preconceived notions of how events should play out.

And this is just the beginning.  We haven’t even gotten to the great derivatives crisis that is coming yet.  All of these things are going to take time to fully unfold.

A lot of people that write about “economic collapse” talk about it like it will be some type of “event” that will happen on a day or a week and then we will recover.

Well, that is not what it is going to be like.

You need to be ready to endure a very, very long crisis.  The suffering that is coming to this nation is beyond what most of us could even imagine.

Even now we are seeing early signs of it.  For instance, the mayor of Los Angeles says that the growth of homelessness in his city has gotten so bad that it is now “an emergency”…

On Tuesday, Los Angeles officials announced the city’s homelessness problem has become an emergency, and proposed allotting $100 million to help shelter the city’s massive and growing indigent population.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti also issued a directive on Monday evening for the city to free up $13 million to help house the estimated 26,000 people who are living on the city’s streets.

According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the number of encampments and people living in vehicles has increased by 85% over the last two years alone.

And in recent years we have seen poverty absolutely explode all over the nation.  The “bread lines” of the Great Depression have been replaced with EBT cards, and there is a possibility that a government shutdown in October could “suspend or delay food stamp payments”…

A government shutdown Oct. 1 could immediately suspend or delay food stamp payments to some of the 46 million Americans who receive the food aid.

The Agriculture Department said Tuesday that it will stop providing benefits at the beginning of October if Congress does not pass legislation to keep government agencies open.

“If Congress does not act to avert a lapse in appropriations, then USDA will not have the funding necessary for SNAP benefits in October and will be forced to stop providing benefits within the first several days of October,” said Catherine Cochran, a spokeswoman for USDA. “Once that occurs, families won’t be able to use these benefits at grocery stores to buy the food their families need.”

In the U.S. alone, there are tens of millions of people that could not survive without the help of the federal government, and more people are falling out of the middle class every single day.

Our economy is already falling apart all around us, and now another great financial crisis has begun.

When will the “nothing is happening” crowd finally wake up?

Hopefully it will be before they are sitting out on the street begging for spare change to feed their family.

Stock Market Dives Sliding 313 points

The volitive stock market took another dive as the Dow slid 313 points on Monday and plunged biotech stocks way lower.  The S& P lost 2.6%.

The Nasdaq experienced steeper losses, shedding 3%. It was the Nasdaq’s worst one-day decline since August 24, the day the Dow took an unprecedented 1,000-point nosedive.

Biotech stocks have stumbled amid concerns that political pressure will end steep drug price increases.

The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF plummeted 6.3% on Monday, its biggest one-day loss since 2011.

Blue chips comprising the Dow temporarily ducked below 16,000 at one point, the first time the index has fallen below that mark since Aug. 25.

“Investors are in a more conservative mood right now. The higher the valuation of a sector, the more vulnerable it is,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds.

Fed Announcement Causes Roller Coaster Market Ride

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rode a roller coaster Thursday afternoon following the announcement that the Federal Reserve would be holding interest rates at their current level.

Within minutes of the announcement, the Dow fell almost 90 points in a span of two minutes before gaining all of it back in the next six minutes.  The Dow then jumped about 30 minutes later to almost a 200 point gain on the day before slowly tumbling to finish the day 65 points lower at 16,674.74.

The S&P 500 followed a similar track to the Dow, falling in the minutes after the announcement and having a huge peak around 3 p.m. before ending the day down 5 points at 1,990.20.

The NASDAQ also road the roller coaster but because of early gains in the day only dipped into the red during the initial post-announcement fall.  The NASDAQ composite finished the day 4.71 higher at 4,893.95 to continue a week of steady gains.