Stock Futures Rise on Fed News, But Worries Remain

After the U.S. stock market was battered yesterday, futures are rising on hopes that the central banks will do even more to help them. Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested, as Bloomberg News reports, "he may use less conventional policies to revive the economy"--and futures for bank stocks are up about 2%. However, an independent strategist tells CNBC, "No doubt we can continue to have a short-term rally, but… if we look at the global economy, contraction is on the way, corporate earnings are coming down sharply." And an economist at RBS Greenwich Capital who spoke to Bloomberg News was also wary: "We’re looking at some pretty severe numbers for the fourth quarter, and the first quarter of 2009 will be pretty bad as well. The economy isn’t going to turn around definitively until the credit markets unclog.”

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By Jen Chung in News on December 2, 2008 8:47 AM

Comments [rss]

Future Taliban

"Stocks rise on healthy fart emitted by churchmouse"; I mean REALLY, is there ANY BULLSHIT OCURRENCE that does NOT result in a "stock rise"?

You war criminals are SSSsssssooooooooooooo f'ing broke it's almost not even funny anymore. Almost.

Shinobi Shaw

The same thing that is happening to Iceland now and what happened to Argentina in 2002 will happen to us next year.

Shinobi Shaw

Matty, the real economy is in the tanks as well (such as consumer spending, massive lay-offs, companies going bankrupt), so the markets are indeed reflecting the real economy. To say otherwise is living in total denial.

This recession is different then the one in 1987 or 1991, because at least then the real economy was OK. Now both are in incredible bad shape

NannyState

It's a day trader's paradise out there and nothing else. There's nothing left to invest in and little reason to invest. They're hiding the dead bodies, that's all.

WesleySnipesAlot

Agreed. And the Dow Jones is hardly a barometer for national economic health as a whole... People forget that it only monitors the top 30 companies in the U.S. ... granted they are a large part of our economy, but one cannot gauge by the top alone.

r1b2

Daily we see more and more layoffs in the banking sector. Even today, banking opened down. Short-term upticks do not a recovery indicate.

WesleySnipesAlot

Agreed. What I find odd is the almost hive-mind mentality of the market... if Bernanke says "The economy is not doing well." the market tanks... but, like, what were investor expecting? do you need a fireman to tell you that you are on fire?

matty

Sorry but fluctuations in the stock market are not a barometer of the economy.

The economy is sick, in general, but slowly getting better.

Volatility is the name of the game right now and each trading day does not reflect if the economy is better or worse than the day before it.

Stop reading the stock ticker people, it'll just give you ulcers.

(also look for bargain stocks!)