October stock observations

The month of October has been a tough one for investors. Below is a table for the DOW everyday this month with the green representing positive closes and the red negative ones. Overall, we are almost down 2,500 points.

Date	Open	High	Low	Close	Volume
24-Oct-08	8,683.21	8,683.21	8,187.48	8,378.95	335,679,000
23-Oct-08	8,519.77	8,795.99	8,243.55	8,691.25	340,742,000
22-Oct-08	9,027.84	9,027.84	8,335.30	8,519.21	348,838,000
21-Oct-08	9,262.80	9,284.55	9,004.27	9,033.66	231,159,000
20-Oct-08	8,852.30	9,266.63	8,852.22	9,265.43	241,402,000
17-Oct-08	8,975.35	9,281.12	8,718.25	8,852.22	360,603,000
16-Oct-08	8,577.04	9,013.27	8,197.67	8,979.26	422,454,000
15-Oct-08	9,301.91	9,308.76	8,530.12	8,577.91	374,354,000
14-Oct-08	9,388.97	9,794.37	9,085.43	9,310.99	412,743,000
13-Oct-08	8,462.42	9,427.99	8,462.18	9,387.61	399,285,000
10-Oct-08	8,568.67	8,901.28	7,882.51	8,451.19	674,918,000
9-Oct-08	9,261.69	9,448.14	8,579.19	8,579.19	436,744,000
8-Oct-08	9,437.23	9,628.07	9,194.78	9,258.10	479,269,000
7-Oct-08	9,955.42	10,124.03	9,436.67	9,447.11	362,524,000
6-Oct-08	10,322.52	10,322.76	9,525.32	9,955.50	391,457,000
3-Oct-08	10,483.96	10,796.26	10,310.25	10,325.38	299,685,000
2-Oct-08	10,825.54	10,825.54	10,439.52	10,482.85	395,328,000
1-Oct-08	10,847.40	10,882.52	10,631.95	10,831.07	256,670,000

At the rate we are going, we literally could have our worst October ever. So far there hasn’t been 2 up days in a row and there are only 4 trading days left in the month. Historically, I think we are suppose to have an up year. Instead, we have a frightening recession.

It is hard to believe there hasn’t been any significant bounce of more than 1 day this month. I think if I put up the Nasdaq and S&P 500 data, it would mirror the same pattern.

The Asian markets are down for a 5th day in a row with the exception of Hong Kong. According to Reuters:

The Nikkei index was down 0.95 percent to its lowest since 1982. Canon Inc shares were down 4.6 percent after the copier and camera maker cut its annual outlook because of slower overseas demand and the strong yen.

The MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan slipped 0.5 percent after earlier hitting a 4-year low. The index is down 62.5 percent so far this year, exceeding the 49.7 percent decline in the all-country world index.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index stood out among the ruins, bouncing 6.5 percent after plummeting more than 12 percent on Monday in its biggest single-day decline since 1997. Shares of global lender HSBC jumped 10 percent, leading the rebound in crippled shares.

South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI rallied a modest 0.4 percent, led by high-tech exporters like Samsung Electronics. The Korean central bank’s biggest ever rate cut on Monday as well as a host of measures to bolster markets have had limited success in boosting sentiment on equities.

Investors remained extremely wary of countries running current account deficits and, in Korea’s case, with a significant amount of foreign debt that is vulnerable to a freeze in funding.

They also have been pulling out of emerging markets en masse, exacerbating the collapse in economies such as Iceland and Hungary that have had to seek emergency loans from the International Monetary Fund.

Tomorrow looks like a positive day for the US markets. At least that is what the stock futures are indicating right now. You can never tell which way the market will bullet in the last hour. We are sure to have an up day soon when the Fed announces its rate cut. We may be at 0% by the end of the month.