"Double Scream" on Wall Street

I was reading in this morning's AP report on the market's early weakness that:

"Stocks dropped in early trading Thursday, with Wall Street taking few chances amid concerns that shrinking credit is hurting the economy and uncertainty about the Federal Reserve's intentions."

Hmm. I wonder how one ascertains the opinion of Wall Street. Do you have to put your ear to the pavement, like a Northern Cheyenne of old would have put his ear to the ground to hear the cavalry coming from the next valley? Do you have to listen really hard to hear the "Street" tell you why the markets are down?

Anyway, I wonder how the mainstream financial press knows so much about Wall Street and what it thinks.

The reporter goes on...

"Thursday's economic data disappointed investors."

The disappointing news was that the economy is growing at its fastest pace in more than a year. But "investors" were "disappointed" so that's why the market tanked 100 points on the open this morning.

Perhaps we need to find these investors and tell them to get a grip. Especially if they're the ones who keep buying and selling on every bit of news reported by AP, which seems to rely on the investors to supply the reasons behind the up and down moves. Can you see the problem here?

It reminds me of the "double scream" scene you see in comedy movies so often, where the one person comes around a corner and suddenly runs into another person and both stand there screaming with fright at each other. (The most famous version might have been with ET and the little girl, although the Tommy Boy version where Chris Farley and David Spade were screaming at the panicked deer in their back seat was pretty good, too).

I mean just yesterday these same barking mad, constantly panicking investors were elated, as reported in the same AP article:

"The Dow Jones industrials gained nearly 250 points Wednesday after losing about 280 points in the prior session, as investors grew more optimistic about the chance of an interest rate cut and sought out bargains."

So they were optimistic yesterday. And great news hit about the economy this morning. But they weren't happy because they wanted it to be greater news. So that's why they're shooting the indexes down the toilet with mass selling this morning.

Are you following this?

Here's hoping they have some coffee and cheer up by this afternoon.

James