The markets and exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been on a roller coaster for the last several weeks, and many feel that there’s still more turbulence ahead.
“In the last two to three weeks, the credit crunch has intensified, and it’s not really surprising if you look at what happened in September,” Neil Michaels, head of quantitative strategies at SPA, told us.
It’s easy to get excited about a blockbuster day like Monday, in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average rocketed to its largest one-day point gain in history. But it’s going to take a lot more than that before anyone can truly rest easy that the markets are firmly on the right foot.
As evidence of the rocky road we’re traveling now, the Dow today was especially erratic, moving up more than 400 points at the opening, then declining sharply, before finally ending the day down less than 80 points.
“Going forward, I think we’ve seen a short-term rally, but it looks like it’s petering out already and the damage has already been done,” Michaels says. “We’ll see a deterioration in company earnings. We’ve seen it in financials, and we’ll see it in other sectors.”