Well, it looks like Geithner is as well-liked, or maybe trusted? on Wall street as he is by liberals. I wonder what that means.
What do you make of this SF?
Stocks Fall Sharply as New Bailout Plan Emerges
By JACK HEALY
For jittery investors, the government’s latest plan to stabilize the financial and credit markets with up to $2 trillion in public and private funds provided cold comfort.
Stock prices tumbled on Tuesday after Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner unveiled the government’s latest tactics to address the troubled banking system. Primary among those was an expanded efforts ease consumer and commercial credit and a new program to buy up hard-to-sell assets that have bogged down banks.
At 2:15 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 345 points, or 4.2 percent, dropping below 8,000, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down about 4.4 percent. It was shaping up to be the worst day for stocks since a broad sell-off on Inauguration Day.
Despite the size and scope of the Obama administration’s plans, investors said Mr. Geithner’s proposal raised more questions than it answered. The way out of the financial crisis, analysts said, looked as murky as ever.
“We’re not impressed, and I don’t think the market’s impressed either,” said Ryan Larson, head equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management. “It’s clear the administration is still trying to work on something concrete. I think the market sensed that, too.”
A key measure of market volatility rose, as did prices of safe-haven government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which rose above 3 percent on Monday, fell back to 2.83 percent.
Every sector of the market was trading lower, with the Standard & Poor’s financials index falling by more than 8 percent, reflecting uncertainty about the banking system and how the government’s latest plans would affect major financial companies. Shares of Bank of America slid more than 5 percent, and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also fell.
Shares of General Motors fell slightly after the automaker announced it would slash 10,000 salaried jobs worldwide and make white-collar pay cuts of up to 10 percent. Stocks got little traction after the Senate approved an $838 billion package of tax cuts and spending on Tuesday afternoon. The House and Senate will now have to reconcile their versions of the stimulus, which has been endorsed by President Obama but opposed by most Republicans.
Stock markets had surged last week as investors waited for Mr. Geithner to lay out how the administration would spend the second half of the $700 billion bailout. But by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, that buying spree had reversed starkly.
“It’s this kind of buy-the-hope, sell-the-news mentality that the market’s taken over the last few months,” said Dean Curnutt, president of Macro Risk Advisors. “The administration’s very focused; they’re clearly working around the clock to create a plan. That being said, these are just enormous financial problems.”
Mr. Geithner said the Treasury was creating a public-private investment fund, jointly run with the Federal Reserve with financing from private investors, to buy up hard-to-sell assets that have bogged down banks and financial institutions for the past year. He said the new fund, often described as a “bad bank” for holding toxic assets, would start with $500 billion, with a goal of eventually buying up to $1 trillion in assets.
In addition, the Federal Reserve announced that it was prepared to expand a program intended to ease commercial credit to $1 trillion, from $200 billion. The Fed said that it was also considering expanding the scope of the program, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, to include securities backed by residential and commercial mortgages.
The stock market, which had been trading down all morning, fell sharply as Mr. Geithner began speaking around 11 a.m.
In Europe, shares fell as $6.9 billion loss by the Swiss banking giant UBS and uncertainty about the latest American bank bailout plan kept investors on the sidelines
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/business/11markets.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
What do you make of this SF?
Stocks Fall Sharply as New Bailout Plan Emerges
By JACK HEALY
For jittery investors, the government’s latest plan to stabilize the financial and credit markets with up to $2 trillion in public and private funds provided cold comfort.
Stock prices tumbled on Tuesday after Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner unveiled the government’s latest tactics to address the troubled banking system. Primary among those was an expanded efforts ease consumer and commercial credit and a new program to buy up hard-to-sell assets that have bogged down banks.
At 2:15 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 345 points, or 4.2 percent, dropping below 8,000, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down about 4.4 percent. It was shaping up to be the worst day for stocks since a broad sell-off on Inauguration Day.
Despite the size and scope of the Obama administration’s plans, investors said Mr. Geithner’s proposal raised more questions than it answered. The way out of the financial crisis, analysts said, looked as murky as ever.
“We’re not impressed, and I don’t think the market’s impressed either,” said Ryan Larson, head equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management. “It’s clear the administration is still trying to work on something concrete. I think the market sensed that, too.”
A key measure of market volatility rose, as did prices of safe-haven government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which rose above 3 percent on Monday, fell back to 2.83 percent.
Every sector of the market was trading lower, with the Standard & Poor’s financials index falling by more than 8 percent, reflecting uncertainty about the banking system and how the government’s latest plans would affect major financial companies. Shares of Bank of America slid more than 5 percent, and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also fell.
Shares of General Motors fell slightly after the automaker announced it would slash 10,000 salaried jobs worldwide and make white-collar pay cuts of up to 10 percent. Stocks got little traction after the Senate approved an $838 billion package of tax cuts and spending on Tuesday afternoon. The House and Senate will now have to reconcile their versions of the stimulus, which has been endorsed by President Obama but opposed by most Republicans.
Stock markets had surged last week as investors waited for Mr. Geithner to lay out how the administration would spend the second half of the $700 billion bailout. But by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, that buying spree had reversed starkly.
“It’s this kind of buy-the-hope, sell-the-news mentality that the market’s taken over the last few months,” said Dean Curnutt, president of Macro Risk Advisors. “The administration’s very focused; they’re clearly working around the clock to create a plan. That being said, these are just enormous financial problems.”
Mr. Geithner said the Treasury was creating a public-private investment fund, jointly run with the Federal Reserve with financing from private investors, to buy up hard-to-sell assets that have bogged down banks and financial institutions for the past year. He said the new fund, often described as a “bad bank” for holding toxic assets, would start with $500 billion, with a goal of eventually buying up to $1 trillion in assets.
In addition, the Federal Reserve announced that it was prepared to expand a program intended to ease commercial credit to $1 trillion, from $200 billion. The Fed said that it was also considering expanding the scope of the program, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, to include securities backed by residential and commercial mortgages.
The stock market, which had been trading down all morning, fell sharply as Mr. Geithner began speaking around 11 a.m.
In Europe, shares fell as $6.9 billion loss by the Swiss banking giant UBS and uncertainty about the latest American bank bailout plan kept investors on the sidelines
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/business/11markets.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
