Dollars and Jens
Thursday, August 16, 2007
today in Finance
The three-month treasury bill, which has seen its yield drop significantly in the last week, gapped thirty some basis points lower early this morning, but returned to a mere 20 bp lower by the close, yielding, according to Bloomberg, 3.87%. The stock market closes later than the bond market, and stocks rallied hard after the bond market closed; I would guess yields on treasury bills will come back a bit more tomorrow morning — especially if someone starts a rumor that the U.S. Treasury has significant sub-prime mortgage exposure — but international markets are doing the sorts of things that make one reluctant to put any kind of conviction into guesses of that sort.
Indeed, it was only right before the stock rebound this afternoon that Reuters put out an item with the title, "Stocks may have more downside: technicians":
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500's (.SPX: Quote, Profile, Research) drop on Thursday of more than 10 percent from its July 19 record finish is a decisive break that may induce more downside for U.S. equities and possibly stall the bull market's run from late 2002.Yeah, because technicians, you know, they're useful like that.
Market technicians consider a 10 percent decline from the highs in an index or a stock as a sign of a corrective pullback that can either be followed by a resumption of another leg-up or an even deeper decline.
And if there's just not enough pain in your life, somebody singing under the name of "Merle Hazard" has inflicted a song on the world "very loosely inspired by [a song by Tammy Wynette]". I disclaim any consequences from the misuse of that information.
