This was a rather eventful week and I have quite a few links to share. The biggest news of course was the researchers at Cern finding that Neutrinos travel at a speed faster than light, and if proven correct – this is said to have a major impact on Physics.
I have absolutely no idea how you send particles through rocks, or how you measure that something arrived 60 billionth of a second earlier than it’s meant to, but it still feels quite exciting!
Going back to the beginning of the week – Italy was downgraded by S&P and that added to the confusion and uncertainty already prevalent in the financial markets which culminated in some pretty big falls across the board this week.
The fall was not limited to stocks as commodities saw a sharp sell off as well. Nickel plunged 11%, silver fell 12%, gold fell 5%, and Copper fell 7% on Thursday / Friday.
This sell off was not averted even though the US Fed announced a scheme called Operation Twist which I frankly don’t understand what it does, but it’s meant to boost the economy somehow.
While all this is depressing, it’s probably not as depressing as losing a billion dollars a quarter – which is what Microsoft’s Bing does every quarter.
Despite all this Roger Nusbaum says you shouldn’t freak out, and I agree. Here is an excerpt.
If I say to you that “markets correct downward every so often and sometimes these can be fast and quick moves that scare people but markets and the stocks that comprise markets come back at some rate of speed and that the decline will not wipe you out,” what would you do with that?
If the S&P 500 was at 1550 and everyone was feeling pretty good then most people would say that “well of course the market goes down 20% now and then, the volatility is just fine.” Now as the market feels like it is down a lot people tend to forget the rational voice the knows markets do go down as they are now.
A speech by Deepak Mohanty, Executive Director, RBI on the recent inflation in India – a very good read to act as a refresher on what’s happened on the inflation front in the last 2 years, and RBI thinking during this time.
Finally, something really positive to end a gloomy week.
Enjoy your weekend!
