| Read Jack's "diary" of life in Washington, DC after the terrorist attack. Click here. |
Well, at least the bond market will be opening. That's a good start.
It's probably better that the stock markets are closed right now. Too many people will be too distracted. I think a Friday opening would be a good thing, especially symbolically, but giving people the weekend to get their strategies and heads together may be an even better idea. Either will work. The physical mess on the streets and transportation issues would also argue for a couple more days.
The truth is that the market was such a mess financially before the events, that all but the most cynical short-sellers would have preferred a closed market to what was coming financially this week anyway. We stood a good chance of having a test of the market lows and getting that over with. Now, we'll have to see.
There probably would have been a number of quarterly warnings this week that probably got pushed out because of all that is happening (or not happening). So, we could well see a double load of warnings next week. Not necessarily, but be prepared.
World stock markets are hanging in there, but clearly they all look to the U.S. for leadership, as they have for some time now. The initial negative reaction was "classic knee-jerk" (like the jump in the price of gold), but as we get a little distance in time from the terrorist events themselves, people will see that this is just a "speed bump" for the U.S. economy and markets.
There is some concern that oil prices may jump due to anxiety about the Mid-East. Rest assured that the President would surely tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) if any serious disruption occurred. And that he would twist the Saudi's arms (and any other OPEC members for that matter) in an unprecedented manner if they refused to relax their output constraints.
Despite a little weakness, the Dollar is holding up very well. There was a little weakness before the events, anyway.
I plan on continuing my dollar-cost averaging (DCA) investment plan on Monday. If the market swoons, I may "cheat" and buy even more.
As before, ANYTHING can happen. And not everything that can happen is bad for stocks.
Jack Krupansky
Updated: September 13, 2001 08:44:26 AM -0400
Copyright © 2001 John W. Krupansky d/b/a Base Technology