CHESSNOID

The US stock plunge pulled down the other world markets when they opened.  Sounds like there falling markets will now affect our market opening tomorrow.  That is definitely a vicious cycle that must be broken immediately.  I think something big will be announced tomorrow before the markets open.  I am not sure what it could be, but I doubt the 3 stooges will let the dominoes continue to fall without them saying or doing something to make it worse.

According to the AP:

In Asia, trading opened Friday with waves of selling in Japan and South Korea. Japan’s Nikkei index was off more than 10 percent, while South Korean share prices plunged 8 percent.

“The underlying fear is how much hell we have in terms of recession,” said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners.

The Dow ended the day at its lows, finishing down 678.91, or 7.3 percent, at 8,579.19. The blue chips hadn’t closed below 9,000 since June 30, 2003, and haven’t closed at this level since May 21, 2003.

Europe’s stock markets, which had traded as much as 3 percent higher, slipped back along with the Dow. Germany’s DAX closed 126.62 points, or 2.5 percent, lower at 4,887.00, while France’s CAC-40 ended down 54.19 points, or 1.2 percent, at 3,442.70. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed 52.89, or 1.2 percent, lower at 4,313.80.

Brazil’s Ibovespa index also initially rose 4.3 percent, only to reverse course and close down 3.9 percent at 37,080. For the second day in a row, Brazil’s central bank sold dollars in a bid to stabilize the real against the U.S. dollar.

Argentina’s Merval index led Latin American losses, plummeting 5 percent to 1,287 after opening sharply higher. Colombia’s IGBC sagged 2.3 percent to 8,216, and Chile’s IPSA fell 1.6 percent to 2,202.

Mexico’s IPC was down 1.8 percent at 20,310 points a day after President Felipe Calderon unveiled plans for $4.4 billion in emergency infrastructure spending to inject funds into the economy.

It looks like the next steps Bush, Bernanke, and Paulson are leaning towards is nationalizing our banks. That is not the solution but they just want to give the appearance they do. Unfortunately, they give the appearance that they are no longer confident in the system. The 3 stooges have brought our economy to its knees.