Economy Watch: May 9, 2010 - May 15, 2010
Stocks hammered by Europe today, but still up year-to-date
Image by Dannels via Flickr UPDATED at 4:22 p.m.: U.S. stock markets are still up year-to-date despite a brutal pummeling today at the hands of Europe and its growing financial instability. The Dow closed down 1.5 percent today at 10,620.16,...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 14, 2010; 4:22 PM ET |
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Categories:
Data
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Deficit/debt
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Wall Street
| Tags: Business, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Investing, NASDAQ, Retailing, S&P 500, april retail sales, frank ahrens, retail sales, stocks today
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5 reasons why Europe is sick
Image by Andres Rueda via FlickrThis European debt crisis you keep hearing about didn't form overnight and didn't come from nowhere. Europe has had troubles for years and they're just now coming to a crisis point. And even the $1...
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Frank Ahrens
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May 14, 2010; 12:45 PM ET |
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Comments (26)
Categories:
Deficit/debt
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The Ticker
| Tags: Economic growth, European Union, Eurozone, Germany and France, Greece, India, Monetary policy, United States
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April retail sales beat expectations
Image by Getty Images via Daylife April retail sales rose 0.4 percent, the government said moments ago, a figure that was twice what forecasters were expecting, a sign that consumers are opening their wallets and spending. Removing auto sales from...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 14, 2010; 8:56 AM ET |
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Comments (3)
Categories:
Data
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The Ticker
| Tags: Business, Final goods, Retail, Retail Trade, april retail sales, consumer spending
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Stocks close down after choppy day
UPDATED at 4:24 p.m.: Stocks nosedived in the last two hours of trading today after a choppy day that saw equities flirt with positive territory several times but fail to hold on. The Dow closed down 1.1 percent at 10,782.95....
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 13, 2010; 4:24 PM ET |
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Comments (4)
Categories:
The Ticker
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Wall Street
| Tags: Business, Dow, Equities, Investing, NASDAQ, S&P 500, Stocks and Bonds, Wall Street
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Adobe (hearts) Apple -- except for that one little Flash problem
Image via CrunchBase Tech-heads have been eating up an ongoing war between Apple and Adobe, which makes lots of software that you use all the time, such as Photoshop, Acrobat and Flash, which is the software at the heart of...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 13, 2010; 2:55 PM ET |
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Comments (20)
Categories:
Corporations
| Tags: Adobe Flash, Adobe Systems, Apple, Apple and Adobe, Apple vs. Flash, Flash, IPad, Steve Jobs, Washington Post
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Report: New SEC stock circuit-breaker rules expected next week
Image by hubs via FlickrSome people have blamed last week's big stock market flash-crash on the lack of individual "circuit breakers" on individual stocks and elsewhere that would kick in and prevent such massive sell-offs if stocks dive too far...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 13, 2010; 2:15 PM ET |
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Comments (1)
Categories:
Wall Street
| Tags: Bob Pisani, Business, Circuit breaker, Investing, New York Stock Exchange, SEC, Stock exchange, Stocks and Bonds
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Credit rating agencies: The real villain in the financial crisis?
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeBig Wall Street banks have been demonized as the villains of the financial crisis -- creating exotic financial instruments that no one really understood, maybe misleading investors about efficacy of those instruments and then blithely...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 13, 2010; 11:55 AM ET |
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Comments (4)
Categories:
Congress
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Corporations
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Wall Street
| Tags: Business, Collateralized debt obligation, Credit rating agency, Good Housekeeping, Moody, New York State Attorney General, Standard & Poor, Wall Street
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New jobless claims drop by 4,000 but remain stubbornly high
New jobless claims filed last week dropped only 4,000 to 444,000, as unemployment remains stubbornly high. Forecasters had been expecting a greater drop in new jobless claims. The official U.S. unemployment rate is 9.9 percent, up from 9.7 percent in...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 13, 2010; 8:54 AM ET |
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Comments (3)
Categories:
Unemployment
| Tags: Business, Claims, Financial Services, Insurance, Jobless claims, Moving average, Unemployment, United States
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Stocks close in strong rally
Image by Getty Images via Daylife UPDATED at 4:37 p.m.: Stocks rallied to a strong close and recouped all the losses that resulted from last week's flash crash. The Dow closed up 1.4 percent at 10,896.91. The broader S&P 500...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 12, 2010; 4:37 PM ET |
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Comments (3)
Categories:
The Ticker
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Wall Street
| Tags: Balance of trade, Business, Economy of the United States, Export, International trade, Twitter, United States, United States Department of Commerce
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Video: Saving the euro, the flash crash and taking your questions
{"movie":"http://media10.washingtonpost.com/wp/swf/OmniPlayer.swf","id":"oplayer-video-swf","width":"454", height:"255","vars":{"title":"Economy Dept. with Frank Ahrens", "flvStreamingServer":"rtmp://cp18263.edgefcs.net/ondemand","stillURL":"http://media.washingtonpost.com/media/images/16-9_video_454x255.jpg","flvURL":"2010-05/201627/204288","autoStart":"false","playads":"yes","adserv":"wpni.video.politics/briefing","clickThru":"http://live.washingtonpost.com/economy-dept-05-12-10.html"},"params":{"allowFullScreen":"true"}} Here's video of me talking today about whether the euro should be saved at all, the roots of last week's flash crash and increased pressure on the Fed. Also, I take your...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 12, 2010; 3:16 PM ET |
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Video
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Stocks close largely negative, gold soars
UPDATED at 4:15 p.m.: Stocks couldn't hold onto the gains they achieved in mid-afternoon trading and largely finished in the negative today, eating away a bit at yesterday's big rally. The Dow closed down three-tenths of 1 percent at 10,748.26....
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 11, 2010; 4:15 PM ET |
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Comments (3)
Categories:
The Ticker
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Wall Street
| Tags: Business, Day Trading, Equities, Investing, NASDAQ, S&P 500, Stocks and Bonds, Wall Street
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Recovery indicator: Wholesale inventories rise
Image by avlxyz via Flickr March wholesale inventories rose 0.4 percent compared with March of last year, roughly in line with expectations and a sign that businesses are restocking their shelves, the Commerce Department said moments ago. Wholesale inventories are...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 11, 2010; 10:24 AM ET |
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Comments (4)
Categories:
Data
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The Ticker
| Tags: Business, Business and Economy, Economy, Gross domestic product, Inventory, Manufacturing, Recession, Wholesale
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Video: The stock plunge, Europe's bubonic plague of debt, interpreting unemployment
{"movie":"http://media10.washingtonpost.com/wp/swf/OmniPlayer.swf","id":"oplayer-video-swf","width":"454", height:"255","vars":{"title":"Economy Dept. with Frank Ahrens", "flvStreamingServer":"rtmp://cp18263.edgefcs.net/ondemand","stillURL":"http://media.washingtonpost.com/media/images/16-9_video_454x255.jpg","flvURL":"2010-05/197721/198229","autoStart":"false","playads":"yes","adserv":"wpni.video.politics/briefing","clickThru":"http://live.washingtonpost.com/economy-dept-05-07-10.html"},"params":{"allowFullScreen":"true"}} This is from Friday, but it holds up like a fine wine. Follow me on Twitter at @theticker....
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 10, 2010; 5:12 PM ET |
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Comments (3)
Categories:
Deficit/debt
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Video
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Stocks close strongly, three major indexes return to positive for 2010
Image by wallyg via Flickr UPDATED at 4:20 p.m.: Nice, nice day on Wall Street. Nice day. Just what investors and traders needed. Stocks opened strongly, maintained most of their momentum and even staged a little third-stage boost in the...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 10, 2010; 4:20 PM ET |
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Comments (28)
Categories:
The Ticker
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Wall Street
| Tags: Business, CAC 40, DAX, DIJA, FTSE, Gold, Investing, NASDAQ, Trade, VIX, Volatility, dow, s&p 500, stock market Wal-Mart
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Europe exercises nuclear option to save euro. Will it -- should it -- work?
Image by viZZZual.com via FlickrYears from now, this may be the moment that we look back on and say either, "That was the moment when the euro was saved," or "That was the beginning of the end for the euro."...
By
Frank Ahrens
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May 10, 2010; 2:00 PM ET |
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Comments (14)
Categories:
Deficit/debt
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The Ticker
| Tags: ECB, European Union, Germany, Greece, Member State of the European Union, Monetary policy, Spain, Stock market, United States, debt crisis, euro, european bailout, european debt crisis, eurozone, greek debt crisis, super currency
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