Why is the DOW down almost 300 points? Did we invade another oil country?

[ThomWV]

Nigeria or somewhere?

[Renew Deal]

1. lol

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[LSparkle]

2. My take: WS is throwing a tantrum because it only got a 1/4-pt rate cut

not the 1/2-pt cut it wanted ...

[Tempest]

4. Wall Street to Fed: Not good enough

Stocks slumped and bonds rallied Tuesday after the Federal Reserve cut the fed funds rate by a quarter-percentage point, as expected, but disappointed some investors looking for a bigger cut.


Investors didn't get the bail-out they wanted so they're throwing a temper tantrum.

[madinmaryland]

5. That's my take on it.

The news this morning was talking about a half point cut.

[SteppingRazor]

3. The Fed announced a rate cut of a quarter point today.

Ordinarily, that's a good thing for the Dow, but this is seen as a sign that recession looms, as the rate is now quite low and the cut was made in the face of a falling dollar.

[napi21]

6. Yep! Wall Street was looking for 1.2 point reduction, and they're

pissy bunch. If they don't like something, they have a way of throwing a tantrum!

[Mike03]

7. Just a Guess, but Washington Mutual's announcement?

That's quite significant, although a colleague of mind predicted this more than a month ago.

What did the Fed do today, anyway? (I've been out of the loop. I'll look it up in a sec...) It's hard for me to believe any Fed decision makes much difference on WS anymore; usually the market predicts and moves on the basis of what they expect.

[SoCalDem]

8. They wanted .50 and got .25..

so they are holding their breath and turning blue.. they will soon pass out, and start breathing again..and then they can get back to skinning us all alive, while telling us "it's for our own good".

[Mike03]

9. Yep. They expected .25, but the wanted .50.

That's what I don't understand about financial commentary. For weeks they've expected .25, regardless of what they wanted.

[Bitwit1234]

10. The financial guy on CNN said

when the Fed cut the rate the first statement was "There are signs the economy is slowing down" and went on about cutting the rate.

He said that statement sent the DOW in a panic because it meant we were heading for a recession. Who didn't know that.

[RDANGELO]

11. Well, they can't just go on cutting the rates forever.

Thats how the banks make money.

[Hydra]

13. You mean beyond making it out of thin air?

The fact that banks lose money when they're the ones creating it really makes me wonder some days.

[Uben]

12. Normal for the market to drop after a cut

Glad I made my sales yesterday!