Crazy Market Action on Shortened Trading Day

by Ryan Mallory

Wasn't planning on putting a new post out here this morning, but considering the circumstances, I thought I'd provide a few comments on what we are seeing here in the early going. First, I won't be posting a watch-list this morning as the market is only open until 1pm today. Most of the declines that we are seeing today came off of yesterday's news of Dubai announcing problems with the debt load they are carrying and their desire to defer interest payments in the short-term. Which makes you wonder, when will the US wake up an see that we can't keep simply printing more money to pay for our obligations towards bond-holders.

Also, if I remember correctly, it was right after Christmas in 2006 that we saw an assassination on an Arab leader, which led to a huge decline in the markets after rising steadily for years on end, which eventually led to one of the worst market sell-offs ever seen (though not the cause - just happened to occur near the highs of the previous market high). Could this piece of "middle-east news" be a similar prelude to another significant decline?