Category: Stocks

GLOBAL MARKETS-Investors dump stocks after U.S. downgrade

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NEW YORK, Aug 8 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks plunged on Monday
and investors fled to the safety of gold and bonds after the
downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor’s stoked
fears the United States is slipping into recession.

Wall Street slumped as much as 6 percent by mid-afternoon
and European stocks hit a two-year low. A favored gauge of
investor anxiety spiked well above 40, a sign investors are
afraid of more declines to come. The CBOE Volatility Index
.VIX surged 41.9 percent at 45.40.

Investors were struggling to discern the effects of the
U.S. credit rating downgrade to AA-plus from AAA, which could
hit various components of the vast U.S. financial sector, from
mortgage lenders to municipal issuers and insurers.

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Wall Street to brokers: Investors should buy, not flee

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street’s advice to investors battered by plunging markets: Keep buying stocks.

With markets plunging for more than a week, and no relief in sight, some of the biggest brokerages on Thursday afternoon and early on Friday told their advisers that clients should not flee but instead buy into the panic.

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Social Networking Sites have Uncertain Profit Potential

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When career-networking site LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) started its first day of trading May 19, its shares zoomed 109% from its initial public offering (IPO) price of $45 a share to close at $94.25, and reached a market value of $9 billion – fueling rumors that we’re in the middle of a new tech bubble. And many investors are eagerly awaiting another batch of Internet IPOs. Social networking sites Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. and gaming site Zynga Game Network Inc. are all thought to be hitting the market this year.
Some analysts say these companies have uncertain profit potential….

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