Monday Markets - ugly, ugly, ugly

Japan hits its lowest level in more than a quarter of a century.  Europe is down across the board, hitting 5 1/2 year lows.  US futures are indicating a down market of around 2% in the US on opening.  On Friday though, futures trading was actually stopped for limit down trading.  In the actual event, it wasn't as bad as the futures showed. Whats a few percent between friends.   The real money has only been there in the opening hour and the last hour of trading in New York.  Check out these two charts from an article by Zubin Jelveh in Portfolio.com.  Shocking.  Click on the charts for a larger size pop up.  The both show just how volatile the opening and closing hours have become.  You really just need to wait until the closing hour and then run with the momentum.  Stay away for the rest of the day.  Or not.

So that shows the shocking volatility is the US.  What is happening to performance elsewhere in the world?  This is unbelievable, and I picked it up from Obsidian Wings. 

"Markets down more than 70%:

Vietnam (-70.5%),

Peru (-73.2%),

Ireland (-73.4%),

Russia Iceland (-88.7%). (-73.9%),

Markets down between 60% and 70%:

Hong Kong (-60.1%),

Poland (-62.6%),

China (-69.8%).

Markets down between 50% and 60%:

South Korea (-54.5%),

Italy (-55.2%),

Egypt (-56.9%),

Brazil (-57.2%),

Japan (-58.1%),

Singapore (-58.2%),

Turkey (-58.5%),

India (-58.3%)."

Despite the doom and gloom, there will always be someone who thinks there are opportunities and here is one that says the "Attractive Stock Valuations Being Created In This Bear Market".  Is this different from the person who said a couple of weeks ago that the risk was being underinvested in equities?

Brace yourself for another week.  I've run out of superlatives.  Hang on ...

I hope to have several items from other contributors this week and next, so watch this space.

P.S.  Go to the sidebar and Vote.  I want to know how you are feeling!  Are you bullish because we've hit the bottom, or are you thinking about careers outside the investment markets?

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