Warren Buffett“A public opinion poll is no substitute for thought.”
Adlin Sinclair“Success is a welcomed gift for the uninhibited mind.”
Dow plunges more than 200 points for second straight day (AFP)
.
slumped 216.90 points (2.09 percent) to 10,172.98, posting its third straight session of triple digit losses and its biggest weekly drop since February 2009.
tumbled 60.14 points (2.67 percent) to 2,205.29 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 24.72 points (2.21 percent) to 1,091.76.
.
for their own benefit — and traditional activities, like making loans and collecting deposits.
Analysts said the stock selloff over the last two days underscored market concerns.
“The president might be on the right warpath to soothe the American public, yet the market is telling him to be careful about using regulatory
,” said Patrick O'Hare of
Briefing.com
.
“What we see in front of us is a market that doesn't like the idea of excessive regulation since excessive regulation curtails earnings potential,” he said.
Also Friday, doubts grew over Bernanke's renomination as key Democrats voiced opposition, prompting a renewed expression of support from the
.
“If he is not reappointed I think the markets would have a fit. Already we have seen that in the markets…what has happened in the last couple of hours is related to the events around Bernanke,” said
,
.
Two members of Obama's party announced they would vote against Bernanke, underscoring a shift in the political landscape after the loss of a seat in Massachusetts that ended the Senate supermajority for the party.
Obama believes the Senate will confirm Bernanke, a
.
's moves to clamp down on lending to cool an overheating Chinese economy also dragged down the market amid concerns over possible easing of the the global economic recovery from recession.
“Frankly, we see
tightening as the biggest factor at work this week. Its actions are highlighting for
that the easy money that fueled the 2009 rebound is going to be less easy to get in 2010,” O'Hare said.
“Naturally, this has to take some wind out of risk trades.”
Banking stocks extended their losses.
fell 3.68 percent to 14.90 dollars,
by 5.25 percent to 27.80 dollars,
by 3.40 percent to 39.16 dollars and
by 4.20 percent to 154.12 dollars.
rose 0.56 percent to 16.11 dollars after notching a stronger-than-expected
of 3.0
in the fourth quarter, down 19 percent from a year earlier.
Fast-food chain McDonald's rose 0.30 percent to 63.39 dollars after its net profit jumped 23 percent in the fourth quarter to 1.216 billion dollars.
fell 5.66 percent to 550.01 dollars despite a quarterly profit that surpassed expectations of most
.
was mixed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond fell to 3.598 percent from 3.611 percent Thursday and that on the 30-year bond rose to 4.510 percent from 4.506 percent.