US Stocks Drop, Investors Rush To Treasurys, Dollar;DJIA Down 275

Source: Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Fears about the pace of global growth hit financial markets hard Tuesday, with stocks sliding and investors stampeding into the safety of the dollar and U.S. government bonds.

Concerns about euro zone sovereign debt were once again partly driving the weaker sentiment, as the European Central Bank scrambled to reassure markets that Thursday's expiration of a EUR442 billion bank-lending program won't destabilize the financial system.

Markets also were spooked by the prospect of a slowdown in China as a surprise revision to a leading indicator contributed to a sharp fall in Chinese equities. They were knocked even weaker by a dismal reading of U.S. consumer confidence released at 10 a.m.

The Conference Board, a private research group, said its index of consumer confidence for June dropped to 52.9 compared with the 62.7 seen in May, a figure that was revised down from a previously reported 63.3. The current month's reading was far below economists' expectations for 62.5, according to a survey conducted by Dow Jones Newswires.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100629-707433.html

Why should Americans be confident? Trillion dollar wars based on lies and wildly exaggerated fear-mongering coupled with the naked control of Congress by coporate money hardly gives the average American much hope.

they'd see some spending. Some people live off of dividends from CDs and other insured investments.

3% at best won't buy you anything much.

Stupid asswholes they are; grooming the DOW for the rich just isn't doing it anymore.

:kick:

the defecit is over $ 1 trillion a year with 2 % interest rates.

What's the US budget going to be like with 6 % interest rates on our borrowing?

At the end of the day some ratings mob will downgrade something to add to the misery. The market is waiting for me to dump everything today.

Besides, I think consumer sentiment is linked to the BP blowout disaster.