On Cue
The BBC reports that US shares fall as spending data ignites economic fears
US stocks have fallen sharply amid renewed fears for the pace of recovery in the world’s biggest economy.
Wall Street’s three leading indexes each ended more than 2% down as another set of grim economic figures saw investors push gold to a fresh high.
Official data showed that US consumers cut spending in June, while incomes grew at their smallest rate this year.
News that Washington has agreed a deal to avoid a potentially disastrous default failed to bolster sentiment.
On Wall Street the Dow Jones index closed down 2.2% to 11,867, while the tech-rich Nasdaq fell 2.8% to 2,669.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.6% to 1,254, its lowest point of the year.
Gold reached another high of $1,640.39 an ounce as investors looked for a safe haven. There was also demand for the Swiss franc.
The fall in stocks came despite a long-awaited deal between the White House and Congress to increase the nation’s debt ceiling.
It isn’t ‘despite a long-awaited deal’, it is, in part, because of the content of the deal. Consumers aren’t spending, and now the Federal government will spend less. Demand will continue its downward spiral, and we will slip into another recession.
The economy needs a big stimulus package to get moving, and there isn’t going to be one, so the economy will tank again.
8 comments
Stimulus? with Hopey-Changey in the White House? In your dreams!
With the deal he just signed, there is no way of putting one together. The economy is going downhill, and the government is pushing.
Ah yes, the Duffer strikes. If he has nothing to contribute of substance, simply descend to personal attacks upon those who dare contradict his holy scripture!
Say, weren’t we just talking about that annoying trait of evangelicals a few posts back? 😈
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
I believe Mr. Duff is reacting in frustration that austerity is going to take an average of £1,600 out of the pockets of Britons in the coming year, as the reduced spending by government cause the private side to cut workers and the loss of tax revenues that causes will make even more public cuts necessary, as Britain descends into the deflationary spiral.
Gold exports have dropped in Australia, which is an indicator that the ‘smart investors’ are anticipating deflation and getting out of gold into liquid assets, like Swiss francs and dollars.
To keep in the name-calling spirit: Conservanomics is a Chamberpot.
But – but – but – this Deal was supposed to make the stock market go up up up!!
It was supposed to make everything ok again!
Kill . Me . Now .
Jobs were the answer. Jobs are the answer. Jobs will always be the answer.
If people get back to work and start buying stuff and paying taxes, most of the serious problems get significantly better.
Yep! Jobs, and taxes for the greedy elites. 🙂
It’s been easy to see the steady decline by watching the AUD-USD exchange rate steadily increasing here over the years. It hit an all time high (for us) about a week ago of almost AUD1.11 -> USD1.00. I actually expected it to hit the 1.10 mark earlier this year, but thanks to our own idiot-in-charge, our growth has slowed also. IT’s only thinks to our mining sector we are doing as well as we are. The retail sector has slowed to a crawl (a few largish retailers are closing down) *shrug*
Jon Stewart did a couple sketches the past two shows (he was in Kandahar last week on a USO tour), and really gave it to Obama. I don’t think Jon’s a fan these days. Of anyone in Washington. Smart man. 🙂
Even with all of the disasters, you guys should be humming along compared to the rest of world. You have all kinds of things the Chinese want, and can’t steal, so you actually have a trade surplus that is the envy of the rest of the ‘first’ world, but demand is the key to an economy.
If consumers aren’t buying, the economy isn’t healthy.
At this point, Zero has apologists on the left, but no fans. Too many people have been hurt by his actions, and no one has any confidence that he will suddenly decide to ‘do the right thing’.
WASF