Financial Betting Articles

Thank goodness Easter was early this year - I needed to have the long weekend to get my breath back after a truly amazing week in the markets. It started with a wounded Bear (Stearns) on Monday and as that Wall Street bastion hit the canvas, the shockwaves carried far and wide. Fear and suspicion stalked the financial sector with market watchers trying to pick who would be the next casualty. The FSA waggled its truncheon at some market 'wags' who sought to spook the stock of HBOS (allegedly, allegedly). Into that mix toss bad results that sent the market up as well as interest rate cuts and its one potent volatility cocktail.

The markets have developed bipolar personality disorders of late. That means that there are plenty of short term reversals to punt on. Talking of changing your mind, JP Morgan have upped its offer for Bear Stearns over Easter to $10 a share from the rather paltry $2 that was originally offered. You can't blink in this market for fear of missing something.

As originally predicted the Fed slashed rates to 2.25% - problem was that following the Bear Stearns rescue, many in the market were looking out for a full 1% cut and as a result there was a mixed reaction in the US markets. The Fed tried to help out in other ways by offering investment banks the same lending facility that it keeps on ice for the retail banks. Then the rumours started flying and all hell broke loose.

The rumour mill went in to action suggesting that Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers results would not be good. As a result their shares took a battering. As it turned out, the results were bad, but not all that bad and it managed to send the market back up. The rest of the week saw the US market spring up and down like a E-number-powered child on a pogo-stick.

Any gains made were mostly given back as people realised their optimism was ill-placed if the underlying economic picture for the States remains grim - which it does. The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development have downgraded their growth expectations for the US economy to 0.1% for the first quarter of 2008 and 0% for the second. At the moment, that almost looks optimistic.

In the UK the picture is somewhat mixed. Surprisingly positive retail sales were tempered by CPI inflation rising to 2.5% in February from 2.2% in January. The MPC rates meeting minutes show that they are willing to take something of a risk with inflation to help easy the slow down for the economy. Merv King, Governor of the Bank of England, has been meeting with the heads of UK banks to find out how they are going to get out of this credit crisis mess. He has already pledged an extra £5 billion to the weekly Bank of England lending funds - but this was three times over-subscribed last week. The banks want the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street to promise there will be bucketfuls of cash in case any of them get into difficulty.

You don't want to take your eyes off these markets - it's the most exciting times since this whole crisis started last summer. Why not stick a few bob on what the next move will be at ChoiceOdds.com.

Last Monday's FTSE drop of 217.3 ticks was the biggest points drop since 21st January.

On average the DAX has lost 31.2 ticks each trading day this year.

The DOW has moved more than 1% on 29 out of 56 trading days this year.

You can eat up to 7 chocolate eggs in one sitting with no adverse effects.

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