Stock Market

The US markets were closed Monday in accordance with Martin Luther King’s holiday, but financial markets in the rest of the world certainly weren’t celebrating. World markets judged Friday’s lukewarm close along with President Bush’s stimulus package to signs of more rough waters ahead and reacted, or overreacted, accordingly. Almost every major stock exchange ended down, with may posting record lows.

On Tuesday in Asia, the selloff reached a fever pitch, with the Hang Seng down as much as 8%, Jakarta down as much as 10%, and India’s Sensex down more than 12%.

On Monday, every major market ended the trading day down, many having as much as 4, 5, 6% shaved off. According to Bloomberg, about half of the world’s markets entered a Bear market on Monday. Bear markets are defined as when a market drops to 20% below the high of the previous year. This is certainly not a great sign for the upcoming months for long investors. The Fed does meet later in the month, and has stated that they will be ready to help out, but at this point the best anyone can reasonably hope for is a quick bump.

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