Reatreat! Sagging Employment, Debt Downgrades Pummel Stocks

Dow Rallies 400 Points on Nexia Rumor

from Zero Hedge:

If anyone had any doubt this market is broken beyond compare and controlled by complete idiots, this should put all doubts to rest. Anyone wondering why stocks are soaring, the reason is that according to non-news, because this was first reported yesterday by the FT, Dexia will park €180 billion in worthless assets in a bad bank. This is beyond ridiculous as Belgium, even in JV with France, will be unable to ringfence and hence fund this amount of capital for the now nationalized bank. It also means that Belgium is about to be downgraded following a long-overdue warning by S&P and Moodys to cut the country. It also means that Belgian CDS will soon trade points up front. It also means that Belgian funding costs will soar. It also means that French CDS will explode tomorrow and that interbank markets in Europe will collapse (even more) once the market realizes that France has just diluted its "bailout dry capital" by rescuing a Belgian bank. And so on. And so on. But for now the ripfest is here. Fade every uptick as this is sheer desperation out of Belgium which pretends it is Switzerland and can do with Dexia what the Swiss did with UBS. Hint: it is not and no, it can't.

and then this:
Here are the key selected sections from the FT story that sent the Dow Jones soaring 400 points from its intraday lows: "Although the details of the plan are still under discussion, officials said EU ministers meeting in Luxembourg had concluded that they had not done enough to convince financial markets that Europe’s banks could withstand the current debt crisis... “There is an increasingly shared view that we need a concerted, co-ordinated approach in Europe while many of the elements are done in the member states,” Olli Rehn, European commissioner for economic affairs, told the Financial Times. “There is a sense of urgency among ministers and we need to move on.” Mr Rehn cautioned that while there was “no formal decision” to begin a Europe-wide effort, co-ordination among EU’s institutions – including the European Central Bank, European Banking Authority and the European Commission – on necessary measures had intensified." So, there is .... nothing definite, just more speculation, more rumors, and more innuendo. But hey, it worked last week with the Liesman rumor. It obviously would work for the FT which has become the End of Day rumor source du jour, first with China bailout rumors (since denied), then with recapitalization rumors (denied), and now with this joke. Pathetic.

Bernanke's Bounce Becomes Bernanke's Bust!

Dow down 180 points.

Bernanke's Bounce! Stocks Rally on Hope for More Bernanke QE

He didn't say he would; he even said he has no plans for more QE. He just said he hadn't "ruled it out". That was all Wall St needed to rally stocks and erase a third day of steep losses. Often, however, within hours, the market will reverse the Bernanke euphoria and continue its prevailing trend.

Bernanke: Nothing New!

More Trouble! BIG Trouble!

Dow down another 200 points. That's three in a row! Down 850 points since Wednesday!

Another Disastrous Day

Dow down 500 points in the past two days.

Stock's Downhill Degrade

Euro-Zone Crisis Weighs on Markets

Stocks in Stalemate

Stocks have been mostly in a holding pattern for the past two months, as shown on this chart.