September 8th, 2010
Posted on 31. Jan, 2010 by PublicWire in Editorial
More Falls For February?
Good news for anyone tired of watching their stocks slide: February is almost here. January was one of the worst months on Wall Street in nearly a year.
The Dow Jones Industrial average will open at 10,067.33 Monday morning after losing 53.13 points Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq will open at 2,147.35 since losing 31.65 points, or 1.5%, while the S&P 500 starts the new week at 1,073.87 after dropping 10.66 points Friday.
Could investors lose even more? According to the Stock Trader’s Almanac, every down January since 1950 were followed by a new or continuing bear market, a 10% correction, or a flat market.
“The market has had an opportunity to rally on some good earnings and economic news, and it hasn’t grasped that opportunity,” said John Wilson, chief technical strategist at Morgan Keegan. “It’s starting to look like we could be in need of a correction, or at least some more sideways action.”
The selling was driven by bank lending curbs in China, the White House’s plan to restrict trading by big banks, ratings agency warnings about Japanese and British debt, and questions about whether Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s term would be renewed. Bernanke was ultimately confirmed for a second term.
