What goes up must…. Wall St. sinks at the open

Weak economic reports and record prices for oil and gold are causing investors to move out of stocks this morning.

As I mentioned in my last essay, I was moving my money after Tuesday’s 417 point gain out of riskier investments and into safer plays such as bonds.  One can never time the market, but if you have been paying attention, the handwriting was on the wall, and now it the time, imho.

From CNN Money:

U.S. stocks fell at Thursday’s open due to a potent mix of a weak economy and record prices for gold and oil.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.1%. The Nasdaq composite index sank 1.3%. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was 1% lower.

More news from just this morning.

Retail sales: Monthly sales suffered a surprising 0.6% drop last month as American households continued to curtail their spending amid higher energy and food prices and a weakening jobs market.

Gold: Gold prices touched the $1,000 milestone for the first time ever as the dollar plunged amid fears about the health of the U.S. economy.

Oil: Oil prices soared above $110 a barrel as investors looked to commodities as a safe haven against the U.S. dollar’s slide.

Carlyle Capital: The fund said it expects its creditors to seize all remaining assets after unsuccessful negotiations to prevent its liquidation.

Things are looking continually more bleak on a daily basis in our financial world right now.

Considering the price of gold rising to historic highs, the US dollar continuing its historic slide, investors pulling back from stocks and moving to bonds and commodities, retail sales dropping as well as bank and financial corporations grim news, it is high time to be looking at your portfolio, no matter how large or small.  

I’ll keep an eye on the markets and financial news today, and if anything of importance pops up, I’ll update this essay.

4 comments

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    • ANKOSS on March 13, 2008 at 16:10

    As the Fed gradually absorbs most of the losses created by the crooked lending binge, the result may be a roughly 100% inflation of the dollar. That means the value of any savings you have in dollar deposits will be cut in half within a year or two.

    Moving your assets into gold, commodities, or strong foreign currencies will protect you from this inflation, but most individuals have no easy means of making such investment changes. Americans are about to pay a very heavy price for the corruption and incompetence of the Bush administration.

    • brobin on March 13, 2008 at 16:17
      Author

    but prices are skyrocketing and the dollar is tanking.  Be vigilant out there.

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