Here’s an interesting article on Facebook’s prospects. Monday, stocks in Asia rose 0.3%, while in Europe and the U.S they declined sharply (1.4% and 1.2% respectively). Some limited sanity returned to trading with Facebook falling 5.5% to close at 28.11 and the VXO rising over 12% to close at just shy of 14. The S&P 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average each broke below their recent benchmark levels (1500 and 14,000) while the 10-Year U.S. Treasury Bond rate fell below 2% to close at 1.7%.
Tuesday, stocks in Asia caught the downdraft started in the West, falling 1.5%. Moving the other direction, stocks in Europe rose 0.3% and in the U.S. 0.9% on moderate volume. As sanity abated, the VXO dropped nearly 9% to close at 12.74 while the 10-Year U.S. Treasury Bond rate rose 2% to close at 2.02%. Wednesday in Asia, stocks rose 1% while in Europe they dropped slightly and in the U.S. they rose slightly on low moderate volume. The 10-Year U.S. Treasury Bond rate fell over 2% to close at about 1.97. From the gross understatement department, today I read that the market has gotten a little ahead of itself.
Thursday, Asian stocks closed unchanged while stocks in Europe dropped 0.3% as the European central banks held interest rates unchanged. U.S. stocks fell 0.5% on low moderate volume. IBM again closed below $200. Friday, stocks up in Asia 0.5%, in Europe 1.2%, and in the U.S. 0.5% on low volume. IBM broke back above 200 to close the week at $201.68 per share. The week as a whole showed little movement as investors ignored the facts regarding the economy and hoped for another can kick in three weeks.