From: slider@anashram.com

Wall Street has slumped in a broad-based sell-off as investors face higher
US interest rates, growing geopolitical tension and persistent headwinds
from the pandemic.

The major US stock indexes pared their losses in mid-afternoon trading
after wild swings.

The S&P 500 hovered around a 10 per cent drop from its record closing high
on January 3, a move that would confirm the index is in correction.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-25/asx-wall-street-markets-currencies-commodities/100779156

Last week, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq suffered their largest weekly
percentage plunge since March 2020, when shutdowns to contain the pandemic
led to a US recession.

At 7:20am AEDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 1.4 per cent
to 33,783, the S&P 500 lost 1.8p per cent to 4,319, and the Nasdaq
Composite had fallen 1.6 per cent to 13,549.

The ASX SPI 200 index fell 2 per cent to 6,909 at 7:30am AEDT, indicating
a steep fall on the local share market.

The Australian dollar fell 0.6 per cent to 71.38 US cents.

Tim Ghriskey from Ingalls & Snyder in New York said fear was driving the
market sell-off.

"From the financial market's standpoint, 2022 is a disaster so far," he
said.

"It's a continuation of the same issues — uncertainty about the Fed, and
the issue with Ukraine."

The US Federal Reserve begins its two day meeting tonight and investors
will look for clues on the central bank's timeline for raising key
interest rates to combat inflation.

In a sign that geopolitical tensions are heating up, NATO announced it was putting forces on stand-by to prepare for a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The threat of potential conflict in that region saw Treasury yields dip, pausing their recent upward climb, which has pressured stocks in recent
months.

Meanwhile, a report from IHS Markit indicated that surging infections of
the Omicron COVID variant have hurt business activity in the United States.

US authorities announced they were suing Alphabet, accusing it of
deceptive location practices by its Google search engine.

The company's shares fell more than 2 per cent.

Electric car maker Tesla fell more than 5 per cent.

Kohl's Corp surged by one third after Reuters reported private equity firm Sycamore Partners was preparing to make a bid for the department store
chain days after a consortium backed by activist investment firm Starboard Value proposed a buyout.

European market rout

In London, the FTSE 100 index slumped 2.6 per cent to 7,297, the DAX in
Germany lost 3.8 per cent to 15,011, and the CAC 40 in Paris fell 4 per
cent to 6,788.

Bitcoin fell to its lowest level in six months.

Oil prices declined on the rising political tensions.

Brent crude fell 1.5 per cent to $US86.56 a barrel.

Spot gold rose 0.3 per cent to $US1,838.58 an ounce.

### - so can you see what's happening here?

that in some ways watching the markets is alternate way of watching what's happening in the world, particularly during certain events... anything
that affects the value of things (or even just threatens to affect them)
being immediately reflected in market trends/surges, all those traders
watching world events like a bunch of bookies watching for even the
slightest change in form hehe...

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)