Sometimes, it’s really just a matter of psychology.
For two days the market dropped by nearly 9%. For most of today, it seemed like it would be a lackluster day on Wall Street.
Then rumors started seeping out that Barack Obama had selected Timothy Gerithner, currently the chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank to be Treasury Secretary.
After two days of punishing losses, Wall Street surged on Friday afternoon after news reports said that President-elect Barack Obama had tapped Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, to be secretary of the Treasury.
Skittish financial markets veered sharply higher following the reports. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 480 points or more than 6.4 percent, while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index swung 6 percent higher. The Nasdaq composite was up 4.3 percent
You can see what happened in the chart:
Yea, it’s a temporary up-tick and in the long run I don’t think we’ve seen the lows in the market, but we may actually see more of this as Obama puts his team together.
But…but…I was listening to Rush Limbaugh, reading Free Republic, and watching Sean Hannity and they were saying that Barack Obama caused the stock market to collapse.
You mean to tell me that Obama may not be an America-hating socialist who wants to destroy the wonderful Bush economy afterall (/sarcasm)