Apocalypse Now

Major collapse in the markets the past 2 days. Down 12% in 2 days after today's 444 point disaster to close at 7,552.

S&P 500 is at an 11 1/2 year low. It is down over 50% from its high a year ago. The bull market of 2002-2007 has been evaporated.

All of my positions have been obliterated.

Citi is on the verge of going under and has lost 50% the past 2 days to close at $4.71.

Nobody has any idea of how much lower the market will go.

Caught the falling knife

Well, made a mistake on this one.

Written October 15-

I pulled the trigger on CAKE late this afternoon right before the market closed. Hopefully I did not try to catch a falling knife. Time will tell.

500 shares @ $9.98.

CAKE is down 35% since my buy point and closed at $6.48 today.

SHLD is down 50% since my sell recommendation I posted on October 16-

SHLD continues to falter. It did not participate in todays rally and is expensive with a P/E of 18.55. Closed at $60.87. I do not have confidence in this stock/ company and should sell. I believe it drops further from here.

It was down another 10% today to close at $30.19.

The only place safe for my money is under the mattress.

3rd straight decline.

Ouch. Where to start?

Market closed down 410 points to closes at 8282.

C down over 10% to close in single digits at $9.64. It's down 57% since the bailout was announced on Oct 3.

American Express Co. is seeking about $3.5 billion from the government to help boost its balance sheet. Down $2.35 (-10 1/2 %) to close at $20.25.

GE has secured the temporary backing of the FDIC for up to $139 billion of the debt of its finance arm.

GE shares closed down $1.52( -8.5%) at $16.29 to close at an 11 year low.

SHLD down over 10 1/2% to close at $44.88. I should have followed through with my recommendation a few weeks ago and sold.

This is getting scary now. I think the market closes below 8000 over the next week (maybe tomorrow).

Jobless Rate at 14 year high

The Labor department announced the unemployment rate hit 6.5% in October as another 240,00 jobs were lost. Unemployment is now higher then the last recession in 2001 where it peaked at 6.3 percent in June 2003.

So far this year, 1.2 million jobs have disappeared.

The employment market is much weaker than economists expected. Economists were expecting the unemployment rate to climb to 6.3 percent and for job losses to fall by around 200,000.

"The U.S. recession is deepening," said Michael Gregory, economist at BMO Capital Markets Economics. The final quarter of this year is getting off to a "particularly ugly" start, he said.

Many expect the unemployment rate to climb to 8 percent (and maybe higher) next year. In the 1980-1982 recession, the unemployment rate was as high as 10.8 %.

10% haircut in 2 days

Another 450 point plus drop. Worst 2 day drop since the crash of 87. DOW closed at 8695.

Its like October all over again.

Everything is in the toilet.

Death spiral watch- GS. Closed at $80.72 (-7.6%)

Obama wins!

Market crashes!

Down almost 500 points. The slide halted an 18% rebound from the S&P 500's five-year low on Oct. 27.

Financial's led the downward charge. C lost almost 15% (-$2.05) to close at $12.63.

FAF takes a dump

FAF announced 3rd quarter earnings this morning and announced an $8.9 million dollar loss (or -$.09 per share). Analysts were expecting a profit of $.40 a share! Talk about getting blown out of the water.

Revenue fell 26% percent from $1.51 billion from $2.05 billion in last year's third quarter.

Investment losses totaled $29.6 million, or 32 cents per share! WTF are they doing? This is not a mutual fund.

FAF's title and services segment eliminated about 1,250 jobs in the third quarter, which is expected to yield annual savings of nearly $66 million

The information solutions segment posted revenue of $515.2 million, a 10 percent decrease from $574.3 million in last year's third quarter.

FAF closed down -$1.24 (-5.85%) to close at $19.96.

The market had a good day and closed up 189 points.

Dow gives up 290 points in final 15 minutes

Nice day in the market- until the final 15 minutes! This market loves to dive right before close. Dow ended down 76 points but was positive for most of the day as the FED, as expected, cut the federal funds rate a half a point to 1%.

Watch list-
CHK $20.65
X $35.37
AA $11.15

FAF announces earnings tomorrow.

CA Median Home Prices down 47% from peak

The speed and depth of the drop in CA real estate is simply amazing. These declines have occurred in roughly 18 months! I expect values to drop further as foreclosures continue to rise and banks refuse to lend to all but to the best customer (with large down payments). The next year will be interesting especially as the ALT A paper starts to default.

Huge rally!

More EXTREME volatitlity today as the market gained almost 900 points for the 2nd largest point gain ever. Dow closed at over 9000. S&P was up almost 11%.

Out of 20 trading days this month, there have been only two that didn't see the Dow close up or down in triple digits.

The market is expecting the fed to cut rates again tommorrow. The market looked past the news of the consumer confidence index recording a record low.

CAKE was down 4.5% to close at $7.99. Looks like I tried to catch a falling knife on that one and its about to cut off my hand. 20% haircut in roughly 2 weeks.