Stocks dive on belief global recession is at hand

All stock markets are down on growing belief that severe global recession is at hand. How low will they go? Could we hit a bottom today? Wall Street is joining world stock markets in a precipitous plunge, with the Dow Jones industrials dropping more than 400 points in the opening minutes of trading. The growing belief that the world will suffer a punishing economic recession has investors furiously dumping stocks. Grim news from overseas has added to the worldwide gloom. Big companies including Sony and Daimler are warning of tough times ahead, joining U.S. companies in scaling back their earnings forecasts. The Dow is down more than 400 points bellow 8,300 level. All the major indexes are down more than 4 percent.

Asian Stocks are declining on Enconomy and earning concerns

Asian stocks fell for a third day after Sony Corporation cut its earnings forecast and South Korea's economic growth slowed, deepening concern a global slowdown is hurting profits. Sony went down 11 percent to its lowest level since 1995 after the world's second-largest maker of consumer electronics cut its annual forecast by more than 50%, citing a stronger yen and worsening outlook. Samsung Electronics Co. was down 3.3% after posting its biggest quarterly profit drop in more than three years. Lotte Shopping Co., South Korea's biggest department-store operator, slumped 7.5 percent after net income missed analyst estimates and the country's economy grew at the slowest pace in four years.

Biggest Price Decliners (CNB, PRSC) Colonial BancGroup

Colonial BancGroup Inc. has been hammered hard today posting a drop of more than 70%. Wow, in one day that is a lot to loose. They top the list of Biggest Percentage Price Decliners among common stocks on the New York Stock Exchange at midday on Thursday. Another bargain? Who knows. They way the market is behaving it could even fall more but if you are a risk taker this could be an opportunity for a quick gain.

Level 3 (LVLT) Shares Collapsing. Down over 40%

Always crazy volatile, Level 3 (LVLT) shares are collapsing today on concerns about the highly leveraged communications company’s prospects in the weakening economy. For Q3, the company posted revenue of $1.07 billion and a loss of 8 cents a share; revs were in line with the Street, and the loss was actually a penny better than expected. For the full year, Level 3 says it now sees adjusted EBITDA of $980 million to $1 billion, narrowing the range from its previous forecast of $950 billion to $1.1 billion. The company said it recently completed several “liability management transactions,” reducing its outstanding debt by $179 million; it also said that it is confident it has enough cash to repay $305 million in debt due in September 2009. Could this mean a great buying opportunity? At this price level? I think you could make a killing or lose some few bucks.

After taking a little dive stocks are in positive territory today.

Too many bargains out ther are pushing Wall Street higher in erratic trading Thursday as investors, while still nervous about growing signs of a weakening economy, picked up all this bargains from stocks that were way oversold from the last two days market collapse. "Its people coming in that see tremendous value, but for a more sustainable advance I think we need more time," said Steven Goldman, chief market strategist at Weeden & Co. in Greenwich, Conn. Wall Street digested a rush of corporate news. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is preparing to cut about 10 percent of its work force, according to a person briefed on the plan who requested anonymity because the company hadn't publicly disclosed details of the plan. Lets hope the market keeps rising...... Up up up!!!

Stocks taking a dive as investors weigh corporate forecasts

Wall Street is big time down again Wednesday as investors shifted their focus from improving credit markets to worrisome corporate profit forecasts that are raising fears of a deep economic slowdown. This is madness. No peace of good news since to matter. Any small piece of bad news is enough to get the markets in free fall. The major indexes fell more than 2 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which lost about 350 points.

The top 10 Most Searched Stock on theStreet.com

Here is the top 10 stock Most Searched in theStreet.comFirst the video

1. APPLE INC (NasdaqGS: AAPL)

Q4 report great and revenue looking to be over 9 to 10 Billion dollars but some analysis are saying that this numbers are low for Apple. However after hour trading is pushing Apple over $100 per share.

2. GOOGLE (NasdaqGS: GOOG)

Still working with the department of justice over an ad deal with Yahoo. Once again with strong earnings blowing away wall street analyst estimates. However the CEO is saying that the company is watching his spending base on weakest sale of ads.

3. FREEPORT MCMORAN B (NYSE: FCX)

FCX was down today 10% but many analyst are saying this is a great opportunity to buy since this stock pays good dividends and the fundamentals are great.

4. CATERPILLAR INC (NYSE: CAT)

Also down today but still having a great outlook.

5. LINN ENERGY LLC UTS (NasdaqGS: LINE)

A big over 10% gainer today. Fundamentals looking great. The stock had suffered but the company is solid.

6. CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CP (NYSE: CHK)

7. GEN ELECTRIC CO (NYSE: GE)

8. AMER INTL GROUP INC (NYSE: AIG)

9. BK OF AMERICA CP (NYSE: BAC)

Loosing money in its credit card business 10. MERCK CO INC (NYSE: MRK)

US STOCKS Market drops on recession, profit worries

U.S. stocks were loosing value on Tuesday as recession fears fueled a sell-off in commodity-related companies like Exxon Mobil Corp.

Also the earnings reports and outlooks sparked caution.

At the time of this writing all of the major indexes were down, however they well showing sign of heading to positive territory maybe later today.

Stocks future lower after rally yesterday

Wall Street is heading to a lower open Tuesday Oct 21st, a day after a over 400 points rally. In the mean time investors are monitoring gradually easing credit market conditions while sifting through another batch of quarterly earnings reports. That will give some clues on where the economy is going. Ahead of the market's open, Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 59, or 0.63 percent, to 9,258.

Among the companies reporting Tuesday are Caterpillar Inc., Apple Inc., DuPont Co. and Pfizer Inc.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 6.50, or 0.66 percent, to 983.90, and the Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 20.00, or 1.47 percent, to 1,340.00.

Some pullback in stocks was to be expected as investors cash in profits from yesterday big gains. Nevertheless, market anxiety appears to have lessened considerably compared to the previous two crazy weeks in wall street when fears about tightening world credit and the health of the economy battered stocks everywhere across the world.

Yesterday, the Dow Jones rally more than 400 points on more signs of a reviving credit market and support from FED Chairman Ben Bernanke for further steps to aid the economy, including an additional stimulus package that could go directly to the consumers.

The three-month Treasury bill Monday yielded 1.28 percent, up from 1.12 percent late Monday. The yield fell to 0.20 percent last Wednesday, meaning investors were willing to take the slimmest of returns in exchange for a safe place to keep their money.

The dollar was higher against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Dow ends up over 400 starting the week

Finally seeing some light Wall Street has had another big advance, with investors growing more confident in response to an improving credit market and comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who hinted that the government will take more steps to help the economy.

Here is a chart of the intraday trading for the Dow Jones today:

View the full .DJIA chart at Wikinvest

ING Gets $13.4 Billion Injection From the Netherlands

More European BailOut....

ING Groep NV, the biggest Dutch financial-services firm, will get 10 billion euros ($13.4 billion) from the Netherlands after warning Oct. 17 of its first quarterly loss and falling the most in Amsterdam trading since 1991.

ING will scrap this year's final dividend and sell the government non-voting preferred securities that won't dilute existing shareholders and will lift the bank's core Tier 1 capital to about 8 percent, the Amsterdam-based company said today in a statement. The securities pay 8.5 percent annual interest, Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos told reporters today.

ING has fallell alreayd 27% after sayin that it will post a record loss of 500 million euros in the third quarter.

Government Ownership

The Dutch government bought local units of Fortis and ABN Amro Holding NV earlier this month for 16.8 billion euros. Zurich- based UBS AG agreed last week to sell a stake of 6 billion Swiss francs ($5.2 billion) to the government and split off as much as $60 billion of risky assets. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the U.K.'s second-biggest bank before its shares plunged this year, may sell as much as 20 billion pounds of stock to the government unless investors agree to buy shares.

ING dropped 2.78 euros on Friday Oct. 17 to 7.34 euros, the most since it was created in the 1991 merger of Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Group, valuing the company at 15.3 billion euros.

ING will be the first to draw on the 20 billion euros that the Dutch government made available to financial firms on Oct. 10.

However although the government will appointment two representatives to ING's board, have a say in executive compensation and get a share of company profit, ING hasn't been nationalized, Chief Executive Officer Michel Tilmant told reporters today.

"It's always a shame and negative if measures like these are necessary,'' said Jan Maarten Slagter, director at The Hague-based investor group VEB, who said he's still studying the transaction. "Profit, if any, will be distributed among more parties, so there will be dilution."

Governments from Washington to London to Berlin have rushed to shore up banks' capital and unlock lending since credit markets froze up following the Sept. 15 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. In the U.S., Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson plans to spend $250 billion of a $700 billion financial rescue package on buying non-voting preferred equity stakes in banks.

ING has dropped 73% this year alone.

Not Transferable

ING plans to sell the government securities that the Dutch Central Bank will consider part of core Tier 1 capital, a measure of financial strength. The securities will have equal ranking with ordinary shares in a liquidation and are transferable only with permission of ING and the Dutch Central Bank, they said.

ING can buy some or all of the securities at any time for 150 percent of the issue price of 10 euros per security. ``This structure is an incentive to ING to withdraw from this government participation as soon as justified by the share price and the path of dividends,'' the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The Netherlands can nominate two members to ING's supervisory board at the company's shareholders' meeting next year. ING agreed that its executive-board members will forego bonuses for 2008 performance and limit severance payments to one year's fixed salary.

``We aren't a major shareholder, but we'll get a lot of rights as if we are a major shareholder,'' Bos told reporters.

ING will use half the 10 billion euros to boost shareholders' equity at the banking unit and 2 billion euros to bolster the insurance unit. The remaining 3 billion euros will reduce ING's debt-equity ratio from 15 percent to 10 percent, the company said.

``It was necessary and we had to do it,'' Tilmant said. ``We feel that this is a fair price to reinforce the company.''

Third-Quarter Loss

ING, which traces its roots to 1743, said Oct. 17 it will take 1.6 billion euros of writedowns in the third quarter. The quarterly loss reflects writedowns for stocks, bonds, structured investments and investments related to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., as well as lower real estate values. Loan- loss provisions totaled about 400 million euros, the bank and insurer said. ING plans to report its third-quarter results on Nov. 12.

ING had Core Tier 1 capital, an indicator of a company's ability to absorb losses, of 6.5 percent as of Sept. 30, it said.