Standard and Poor's dropped a bomb this morning on the markets
http://www.businessweek.com/...
Stocks, 10-Year Treasuries Fall as S&P Reduces U.S. Outlook
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks sank the most in a month as Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service cut the nation’s long-term credit outlook to negative. Ten-year Treasuries erased earlier gains and the cost to protect corporate bonds from default climbed to the highest level this month.
The S&P 500 declined 1.5 percent to 1,300.24 at 9:58 a.m. in New York, its biggest drop since March 16. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed three basis points to 3.44 percent after declining four basis points earlier. The dollar was up 1.1 percent at $1.4275 per euro. Gold for June delivery advanced 0.5 percent to $1,493.50 an ounce.
S&P reduced the outlook for the long-term U.S. debt rating to negative from stable, while affirming its AAA long-term and A-1+ short-term sovereign credit ratings. S&P said that more than two years after the beginning of the recent crisis, U.S. policymakers have not agreed on a strategy to reverse recent fiscal deterioration or address longer-term fiscal pressures.
Austan Goolsbee made the rounds of both MSNBC and MSNBC downplaying the significance. The head of sovereign debt at S&P was interviewed on CNBC.
Erin Burnett questioned the timing of this report with the proverbial "Why now"?
Steve Liesman resident CNBC economist took the position that it's literally impossible for the US to default on the debt because "We can print as much money as we want". The S&P guy deadpan response was "Not in our opinion".
Rick Santelli was off on his see I told you thing
CNBC's Bob Pisani resident NYSE floor reporter was saying that the 200+ point drop(as of this writing) was a reaction anticipating a downturn in the economy as is being seen in England in response to their austerity measures.
Updated by JML9999 at Mon Apr 18, 2011 at 01:09 PM EDT
As of 1:09 PM Dow Jones Industrial Average -213
CNBC shows now in full blown trash of the S&P organization.
Updated by JML9999 at Mon Apr 18, 2011 at 03:03 PM EDT
DJIA now down 150
Pimco head to appear on CNBC during this hour
Updated by JML9999 at Mon Apr 18, 2011 at 03:41 PM EDT
DJIA down still 150
Mohammad El-Erian of Pimco was saying in short this is nothing new but we don't have a lot of time to fix this, this being the debt issue.
Updated by JML9999 at Mon Apr 18, 2011 at 04:02 PM EDT
Last Update DJIA close -140.24 recovering from a low of -247 down earlier in the day