“Uncertainty about the Senate’s confirmation of Ben Bernanke for another term as the Federal Reserve’s chairman also rattled investors in a week when political squabbles helped erase stocks’ gains for 2010,” Mnyandu reports. “‘Between uncertainty over Bernanke, Obama’s bank regulation proposal and the election in Massachusetts, the market is like a cork in the water and the Democrats just hit the flush,’ said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. ‘It looks like we’re headed really low.'”
Mnyandu reports, “Since the Democrats lost their 60-vote hold in the Senate with the election of a Republican in Massachusetts on Tuesday, there is a growing sense among investors that political uncertainty has all but ended the rally that began in March.”
MacDailyNews Note: Shares of Apple (AAPL) lost $10.32, or nearly 5%, to close the regular session below $200 at $197.75.
Mnyandu continues, “Google sliding 5.7% to $550.01, a day after the Web search company posted quarterly revenue that missed some forecasts… Stocks hit session lows within the last half-hour on news that Britain had raised its international terrorism threat level to its second highest alert.”
“The S&P 500 registered its worst 3-day slide since March 2009, around the start of the recent rally that sent both the S&P 500 and the Dow to 15-month highs as recently as Tuesday,” Mnyandu reports. “The Dow and the S&P 500 are now off more than 2 percent year-to-date, while the Nasdaq has shed almost 3 percent.”
“Aside from worrying about how the Obama administration’s proposals might hurt bank profits, investors also fretted about the likely impact of China’s efforts to prevent the world’s third-largest economy from overheating,” Mnyandu reports. “Since China has led the nascent global economic recovery, any curbs it puts on lending threatens to slow demand that other economies, including the United States, had relied upon to spur their own growth. Banking industry sources said this week China ordered some banks to restrict lending for the rest of the month.”
Mnyandu reports, “Other disappointing news on the technology front came from Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD.N), which warned that sales in the first quarter of 2010 will be down. Its shares tumbled 12.4 percent to $7.88.”
Read more in the full article here.
ChrissyOne,
McCain was the far better choice because he has decades of experience working at the highest levels of federal government vs. Obama’s very little to none and McCain’s beliefs much more closely match the majority of U.S. citizens’ beliefs as evidenced by any number of polls including, but not limited, to the data compiled in very recent one:
Rasmussen Reports National Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters – January 6-7 and 10-11, 2010
(Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence)
Question posed: “I’m going to read you a short list of issues in the news. For each, please let me know which political party you trust more to handle that issue.”
• Economy: Republicans 48%, Democrats 37%, Not sure 15%
• National security and the War on Terror: Republicans 52%, Democrats 35%, Not sure 14%
• War in Iraq: Republicans 49%, Democrats 34%, Not sure 17%
• Immigration: Republicans 47%, Democrats 32%, Not sure 21%
• Taxes: Republicans 47%, Democrats 38%, Not sure 15%
• Health care: Republicans 46%, Democrats 43%, Not sure 11%
• Abortion: Republicans 46%, Democrats 39%, Not sure 15%
http://bit.ly/8Yb4un
Now that we’ve covered Hint #3, care to take on the other 6 Hints I’ve given above?
Furthermore, regarding Hint #3 above, I contend that the health care legislation we will finally get will look an quite a bit more like John McCain’s 2008 campaign proposal than anything Barack Obama was dreaming up.
We could have saved a bunch of time and already had the legislation enacted had the voters used their heads (for a change) and simply elected McCain, who most can now plainly see was obviously the better choice.
Instead we’ve already wasted a year, with much more waste and nonsense to sit through.
McCain’s 2008 Health Care Proposal is here:
http://www.health08.org/candidates/healthissues_mccain.pdf
For many of you, it will be the first time you’ve seen it versus what the MSM told you to think about it.
Hint #8: If you’re not well-versed on the issues, please do the country a favor and don’t bother voting next time. You’re wasting everyone’s time. Voting for government office holders shouldn’t be a popularity contest and should have nothing to do with who can read off the teleprompter better. Better to just limit your voting activity to texting American Idol.
@ Superior Being
Polls? Seriously? You simpering little rube. 10 percent of Americans don’t know Hawaii is a state. Polls mean absolutely fsck all.
…AS YOU CLEARLY STATE:
“This isn’t a popularity contest.”
But okay, McCain was a War Hero and had Decades of Experience.
Also true of John Kerry. And he managed to not get he dumb ass shot down and locked in a tiger cage.
Would you have voted for him?
F. Maxwell is government union worker that is mad at the world and couldn’t get laid with a fist full of 50s. Pretty obvious why he would be for the destruction of the US by Marxists.
Did you or did you not ask for me to “frame a position and back it up with data” regarding my “Hint #3?”
I have done so – and quite convincingly – and your response is to call me a “simpering little rube?”
Seriously?
And then you clumsily attempt to change the subject to – of all things – John Kerry?
Are you really that facile?
And, no, I would not have voted for John Kerry, because I believe, unlike him (based upon his U.S. Senate voting record) in following the precepts laid out in The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, not in attempting to thwart them for political gain.
I want fewer people dependent on the government, not more. That’s why I did not vote for John Kerry.
See, the argument goes like this:
Polls show that most people like Republicans. Therefor they should lead.
But if more people liked Republicans then why did more of them vote for a Democrat?
Well, that’s because people are stupid and don’t know what’s good for them.
Ah, I see. So, doesn’t that call the validity of the polls into question?
What?
I mean, if people don’t know what’s good for them, then why do you put any faith in what they say in polls?
SHUT UP, COMMIE!!! I DRIVE A TRUCK!!!
…right.
Come on, monkey, jump!!!
Rush Liimbaugh, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Monica Crowly, etc. all hit the nail on the head over a year ago. You liberals are clueless. Glen Beck had a great, informative documentary on socialism on yesterday and it is prominently featured over at Fox News. You idiots have no idea what kind of hell you support. Clueless losers.
Does anybody want a pizza roll? Comment on this web page if you want a pizza roll.
Pablo had some very valid points. Superior Being and friends are Patriots!
I’ll take a pizza roll.
I love them almost as much as I love reducing Liberals to the textual equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and loudly singing “La, la, la, I can’t hear you!”
Well, here’s another poll from Fox News/Opinion Dynamics, conducted by telephone January 12-13, 2010. It shows President Obama’s approval hovering at about 50% and people are very concerned about the direction o the country, just as they have been in every poll.
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/011410_Obamaapproval.pdf
But the real reasons I picked this poll were (1)It’s from Fox so you can’t impeach it, and (2) It makes a good point about whether people overall think John McCain or even Hillary Clinton would have made a difference in fixing the economy. Answer? They don’t.
12. If John McCain had become president, do you think he would be doing a better job, a worse job, or about the same kind of job as President Obama?
Better Worse Same as (Don’t know)
12-13 Jan 10 26% 40 27 7
Democrats 5% 68 24 4
Republicans 55% 9 29 7
Independents 22% 39 30 9
13. If Hillary Clinton had become president, do you think she would be doing a better job, a worse job, or about the same kind of job as President Obama?
Better Worse Same as (Don’t know)
12-13 Jan 10 25% 21 48 6
Democrats 21% 18 57 4
Republicans 29% 27 40 4
Independents 27% 20 43 11
BTW, the excellent pollster site 538.com says this about Rasmussen’s polls: “What Rasmussen has had is a “house effect”. So far in the 2010 cycle, their polling has consistently and predictably shown better results for Republican candidates than other polling firms have. But such house effects can emerge from legitimate differences of opinion about how to model the electorate.
If you’re running a news organization and you tend to cite Rasmussen’s polls disproportionately, it probably means that you are biased — it does not necessarily mean that Rasmussen is biased.
@ Superior Being
“…almost as much as I love reducing Liberals to the textual equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and loudly singing “La, la, la, I can’t hear you!”
Cool! When are you going to start doing that?
My point, that you entirely missed above, is that just because someone is a War Hero with Decades of Experience, that doesn’t even necessarily qualify them to lead. Even in *your* mind.
So come on, monkey. Reduce me.
God, even as Obama won the election, I really wished that McCain had won so that the Republicans would have to fail to clean up the mess they made the previous 8 years and the spineless Democrats did not have to take the blame for 8 years of total FAIL.
I really wanted the country to fall further to teach you Faux News believers a lesson. Guess I’ll have to wait a bit longer while we all swim in a pool of Glen Beck’s bile.
Islandgirl,
So, 53% overall, 29% of Democrats, 69% of Republicans, and 70% of Independents think that if John McCain had become president he would be doing the same or better than Obama.
Thank you for helping me make my point even though I obviously don’t need any help.
Well, sorry, the column spacing didn’t translate over.
Anyway, here’s at take-away: overall, 40% of those surveyed thought John McCain would have been doing a worse job than Barack Obama, and 48% thought Hillary Clinton would have been doing about the same kind of job as Obama.
I didn’t expect anyone in office to snap his or her fingers and fix the economy in 6 months.
@ Dude
Have you been reading my diary?
ChrissyOne,
If I reduce you any further, we’re going to need an electron microscope to find not only your brain, but the rest of you, too.
I love this logic!
Most people THINK McCain would have made a better president. THEREFORE McCain would have been a better president.
Why didn’t I see this before?!
@ Superior Being
100% of the people in my house think you should go make yourself some pizza rolls.
JUMP MONKEY!!!!
Hey Superior Being, did you know that the earth actually used to be flat until someone sailed around it? It’s true!
ChrissyOne,
Your sad attempts to ignore any of the salient points made above by inventing inanities in order to try to belittle certain posters reeks of the despicable attacks on Sarah Palin. Such behavior isn’t helping your cause, whatever that may be, Tina Fey.
Your fear is showing and it isn’t the least bit pretty.
You’ve lost. Best to give up while you’re way, way behind.
Superior Being is certainly aptly named, especially when compared to you.
@ Journo
Oh, you want despicable attacks on Sarah Palin? Well why didn’t you say so!
How about this one?
http://chrissyone.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/sarah-palin/
Or this?
http://chrissyone.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/holy-fuck/
You’re welcome!
(P.S. – I know these are kind of old, but I lost interest in Sarah a while back. Like I’m losing interest in this thread)
Intelligent life remains undiscovered on MDN. Good day to you!
@Superior Being
I could have “rigged” the numbers as you did by adding up dissimilar columns to get a larger total for a different effect, but that would be disingenuous and well, inaccurate.
That’s not my goal here, or in life.
Holy cow, he called you Tina Fey and thought it was an insult?