Despite the Empire State survey nosedive, crummy production production, sluggish capacity utilization and another poor NAHB housing data survey, there was no stopping buyers yesterday. At least not until the last 90 minutes, when selling took away triple digit gains in the Dow. American Express was the culprit for what took the markets south late in the day. This was after an SEC filing showed continued credit card defaults as well as decreased loan amounts in its portfolio. Shares were down 3%, but this was actually down almost 12% from intraday highs.
Today's Market Moving Stories
- Asian markets were up overnight, after another bank, this time Standard Chartered, said they’d had a stonkingly good first two months in 2009. They added that they are not in need of new capital.
- The UK press continues to portray a gloomy picture of the economy with spending on advertising falling by almost a tenth in Q4 2008. The FT reports that a further 1 million job losses are set to unfold over the next two years.
- ECB members Jurgen Stark and Yves Mersch are on the tapes this morning playing down prospects of the ECB engaging in quantitative easing. Stark said he sees no need for new tools “in the immediate future” whilst Mersch is not convinced of the need for “helicopter spending”. Will the ECB end up eating their idiotic hardline words yet again?
- The critique of Europe’s pathetic piecemeal approach to the crisis is gathering pace. In his address to the G8 youth summit, Mario Monti said the EU had reacted to this crisis, but it has taken the wrong decisions at every turn, by emphasising national responses to a global crisis. While in a column for Vox, Charles Wyplosz is highly critical of the Franco-German policy response, which he
