Monday, September 15, 2008

Bloodbath: The Lossification

Going to live blog this for posterity.

9:55 AM -- Dow off 300 points in 25 minutes. We'll see just how bad this is going to get.

10:35 AM -- Lehman shares are down to 0.20 and falling. It's over. The BoA/Merrill merger news conference is going on. AIG is down 5 bucks to $6 a share and falling.

11:00 AM -- Dow is only down 200 points. Some bargain hunting going on.

11:30 AM -- AIG now off more than $6, having lost over 50% of its value. AIG is the world's largest insurance company, or was. That's no longer the case. If AIG goes under, today's maelstrom will look like a picnic. Dow back down 275.

11:45 AM Dow off 288. Roubini is predicting no independent broker dealers will survive, and that the Dow will lose 20% to under 9,000 before the end of this mess.

12:10 PM -- Still down 275, but the big news is AIG is now off more than $7.50 to less than $5 a share, over 60% of its value is gone. AIG might not survive the day, let alone the week.

12:55 PM -- AIG is scrambling to save itself. It's only down by half now, but it looks like most financials are down 20%. WaMu, Wachovia, Goldman, all down big. Dow still floating around 225 down.

1:20 PM -- Losses are being pared because of rumors of a Fed emergency rate cut tomorrow.

1:55 PM -- Dow back down 325 and falling, because the rumors of a rate cut are killing the dollar.

2:45 PM -- Dow off 3.40, AIG under $5.50 again.

3:05 PM -- Dow off 370, AIG off $7.

3:08 PM(!) -- Dow off 400.

3:25 PM -- Dow briefly dips under 11,000 to 10,997, off 425 points.

3:35 PM -- Tripping the 11k mark and falling to 10,985 has triggered some bargain hunters, Dow shoots up 100, to being only off 340.

3:45 PM -- People realized that bargain hunting is dumb. Dow is down 400 again.

3:50 PM -- Dow under 11k again and falling towards the finish line.

4:00 PM -- Dow just about hit the 500 point loss mark as it completely fell apart in the last 20 minutes of trading.

4:10 PM -- Official numbers, Dow down -504.48 to close at 10,917.51. AIG down 7.38 to 4.76, a loss of 60%.

1 comment:

  1. You know, in a way, I've been waiting for this.

    I actually feel kinda better knowing that we're going to crash. Time to ride it out and try to pick up the pieces.

    But them, my solution to an economy threatening to fall over would be to kick it over the edge, let it break, and then start picking up the pieces.

    Is that bad of me?

    ReplyDelete