Market Recap: Market Confidence Low, Europe Struggles, Supercommittee Admits Defeat
- Posted on November 21, 2011 at 5:19pm by
Becket Adams
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Markets closed down on Wall Street today:
- Dow -2.11 percent
- S&P -1.86 percent
- Nasdaq -1.92 percent
- Oil -0.36 percent
- Gold -2.45 percent
On the commodities front:
- Oil (NYSE:USO) fell to $97.32 a barrel.
- Gold (NYSE:GLD) fell to $1,682.80 an ounce
- Silver (NYSE:SLV) fell 2.44 percent to settle at $31.58
(Related: Here’s Why Existing Home Sales Climbed in October)
Today’s markets were down because:
1) Europe: Mariano Rajoy and his conservative People’s Party won the biggest majority in a Spanish election in almost 30 years on Sunday, but despite Rajoy’s pledge last night in his victory speech that Spain would “stop being a problem and become part of the solution again,” investors were unsurprisingly not relieved.
While Rajoy’s absolute majority means he will have no trouble pushing through heavy-handed austerity measures that will make the EU happy, the general consensus now seems to be that only eurobonds or a massive bond purchasing program can effectively tackle the sovereign debt crisis and put an end to its rampage through Europe.
2) Congress: The 12-member congressional supercommittee tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in budget savings over the next decade essentially declared defeat today after three months of talks ended in a stalemate, finally quashing any remaining hope that Congress can put aside party politics in order to compromise for the sake of getting things done.
Without a debt deal, automatic spending cuts will kick in at the beginning of 2013 — cuts that affect both social programs and defense spending, thus dealing both Republicans and Democrats a heavy blow.
3) Banks: Though selling was broad today, financial shares were the biggest losers, as usual. JPMorgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America all declined more than 3 percent.
[Editor's note: the above is a cross post that originally appeared on Wall St. Cheat Sheet.]
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TEARS FOR AMERICA
Posted on November 22, 2011 at 2:39pmSuper Committee was a super failure, are we surprised? At least the Repubs stood for something this time…
Report Post »Ron Paul 2012
Posted on November 22, 2011 at 12:31amFirst of all we need a balanced buget now not 10 years from now so the super committee was on the wrong track from the very start
Report Post »Cosmos102
Posted on November 22, 2011 at 12:17amThe Left always makes the argument that the Right thinks people who don’t agree with them are stupid. I heard Juan Williams say that on Stossel’s show this weekend. Poor guy is tone deaf to what his own party is always saying against the Right. But what really stands out in my mind is that, we ARE always right. We on the Right, knew it would be this way if Obama won the election. I bet more of us cried when we heard that news, than during any other presidential election in our lifetimes. What was so obvious to me, was not to others. But here we are. This is Obamaville. This is hell. Take a good look because these are the “good” times. The worst is still to come, BEFORE it gets better. And it will get better. It has to, or the book of Revelations is about to be realized.
Report Post »Small World
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 9:07pmthey are all disgraceful.
Report Post »hauschild
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 7:27pmTwo words…Groundhog’s Day
Report Post »shammo
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 6:27pmWe get what we deserve as long as we are represented by John Kerry and the other wastes of human flesh. No doubt that JK wakes up every morning knowing that he is the best and that is the problem. Name at least one real success outside of politics!! A yellow dog running as a democrat could get elected in MA. Ivy league schools are way overrated. A lot of Ivy League graduates got us in this mess. No more east or west coast people should be elected to the highest office. Look where the truly great presidents came from.
Report Post »Teaple
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 6:23pmUnconstitutional committee created by congress to avoid doing their lawful duties.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 8:57pmAgreed!
Report Post »zman61
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 6:05pmThis whole “Super Committee” was a joke from the word go. They were evenly divided and people expected them to come to an agreement. Pure Stupidity. Of course what should we expect from congress. All they care about is getting re-elected. There were no Tea Party people in there the GOP made sure of that. Nothing in there but the establishment people on both sides. What this country really needs is a gigantic enema. They should start with congress and then move on to the New York and California next. In order for this country to “get well” we need to flush out all of the sheeut!!!!
Report Post »AvengerK
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 5:35pmNow we‘ll see what Barry’s actually willing to cut. These “automatic” cuts have been tried before and failed.
Report Post »Dug2Dark
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 5:26pmYeah, yeah, all this & barry is still a jack*ss, so what else is new????
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 21, 2011 at 9:00pmSpain is the Model for BO’s Green Energy… and it’s going down the tubes!
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