Just took a breather to see what was happening out there, given that the DOW Futures were down earlier >100 points, according to OzEquities.
This week's editorial from Your Money Weekly also makes for interesting reading. It supports the view that: 1) last week's selling in the FTSE was liquidity driven; 2) that the FTSE is nearing the bottom; 3) that a substantial rally is nearby (the front page headline reads "The Mother of all Rallies"); and 4) that "the French leadership was secretly concerned that the US would be welcomed as saviours when they entered Baghdad, which would be quite a blow to Iraq Chirac".
Again, according to YMW, in the 12 months since 7 March 2002, global markets have fallen to the following extent: DOW -27%; DAX -64.5%; FT100 -39.8%; CAC -60.7%; Tokyo -32.5%; and Australia -22.1%.
Between Monday and Wednesday of last week, all markets were down, including, to the following extent: FT100 -5.9%; DAX -9.4%; CAC -6.7%; Tokyo -2.5%; and Australia -1.0%.
Where it will all sit tonight could be interesting, but one offshore stock I am particularly interested in is now up 30% off last week's lows, after being down 27% mid-week, and tonight has opened 6% down in Europe.
Volatility in the markets is now approaching a near mania level with stocks such as NAB (another stock that I have a keen interest in) gyrating in a dual bandwidth of +/-50c on reasonable trading days, ranging up to +/-85c on heightened (ie" "extreme") trading days.
