The interesting thing about this is that it used to be said that when the United States sneezed, the world caught cold. Now it appears that this adage applies at least as much to China, if not more.

In a way it's a very good thing. Look at the impact on our markets from a bad day's trading in China. Our two economies are so interdependent now that any kind of military conflict between our two nations (nuclear weapons aside) is almost unthinkable. This is one of the reasons I've supported free trade - it makes war with those countries with whom you have vigorous trade relations financially ruinous, and thus generally impractical. It becomes much cheaper for nations that are so financially interdependent to work out their differences rather than to fight them out.

Aw, the stock market hasn't really been a good indicator of anything for a little while. It has always been a gamble to invest in the market and more so now than in several years. The large corporate investors control the market. It could go back up 300 today. So what. The economic indices are manipulated so US citizens feel good. If the market actually crashed or had a really bad day, most people would wonder why, complain there was no warning, or just not care.

All is well in the garden.

Don't mind that:
* that orders for durable goods in January dropped by the largest amount in three months ...
* that the government on Wednesday to revise its estimate of fourth-quarter GDP growth down to an annual rate of about 2.3 percent from an initial forecast of 3.5 percent,...
* that median home prices fell for a sixth straight month...

But analysts who have been expecting a pullback after a huge rally that began last October and sent the Dow to a series of record highs, were unfazed by Tuesday's drop.
...
All who invest should feel grateful that we've had a great run for the last 12 to 18 months," said Joel Kleinman, a Washington, D.C. attorney, adding that he has learned to not read too much into any short-term ups and downs. "This is another day in the market."

Personally, I'm not phased. Johnny's thought on our greater interdependability among nations, especially WRT our relationship to China, is quite apropos, it *was* time for a correction, and we shouldn't discount the effect of these exacerbating circumstances (from the article):

"...the decline accelerated throughout the course of the session before stocks took a huge plunge in late afternoon as computer-driven sell programs kicked in...and...
...because the worst of the plunge took place after 2:30 p.m., the New York Stock Exchange's trading limits, designed to halt such precipitous moves, were not activated."

There are multiple reasons that we need not get all a-twitter at a 100-point drop, as in days past. Greater volatility in the market is here to stay, I think. La-de-da.

Nothing to see here, just move along, folks.

We did fine but our money is in bank stocks and the three we own went up. We also were involved in the "selling" yesterday and got it done early so again we did fine.

The market was great under Bill but since the take over by the Republicans we all knew it was just a matter of time before they made it drop.

Land and certain commercial property works also if you study both the growth of the area along with the location.

As for the drop, keep your eyes open there will be some nice "buys" on Friday!

LV and Bill, sitting in a tree....

Troll

(Suggestion: to not follow stock "tips" from trolls, or anyone else on the internets.)

Hell, I get mine from an avowed communist. Seriously."

LOL, thought he was too sick to call?

Who is this BIll and where are his posts?

(link...)

Ended up at -3.3%. One of the top six worst closings since 1987 or something.

Rebound today, but mine are still doing fine from yesterday.

Stocks dive on subprime mortgage worries, down 242.66