Thursday, July 24, 2008
The Enabler: "Wall Street Got Drunk"
"Wall Street Got Drunk."
Major U.S. stock indexes deepened their losses on Thursday afternoon as investors reacted to a worse-than-expected drop in existing home sales and some negative earnings reports, while oil prices reversed to the upside after earlier declines. ... On the earnings front, Ford Motor posted its worst quarterly performance ever, losing $8.67 billion in the second quarter. The results included an $8.03 billion write-down due to a decline in the value of its North American assets and its credit division's lease portfolio. Even excluding those items, Ford lost 62 cents per share, more than double the 27-cent loss anticipated on average by Wall Street analysts.
BussinessWeek | Stocks Drop on Grim Home Sales, Higher Oil
“Wall Street got drunk; that’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras. It got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is: "How long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?”
George W. Bush
Existing home sales — including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — fell 2.6 percent nationally to 4.86 million units in June, down from 4.99 million units sold in May, and 15.5 percent down from the 5.75 million units sold in June 2007, according to statistics released by the National Association of Realtors.
The local market experienced a 12.6 percent year-over-year decline in existing home sales in June with a total of 5,252 units sold, according to statistics from the Houston Association of Realtors.
Houston Business Journal | Houston home sales down 12.6 percent in June
"And we've got a housing issue? Not in Houston, evidently not in Dallas, because Laura's over there trying to buy a house today."
George W. Bush
