Today, markets all over the world tumbled because of the Dubai Fallout.

Wall Street Journal Reports:

Stocks slumped Friday as investors reacted to a debt crisis in Dubai, with more repercussions likely on tap the next few days as traders return from major holidays in both the U.S. and Middle East.

Crude oil touched a six-week low, gold tumbled, and the dollar climbed as worried investors sought safe havens.

The stock market’s slide began in Europe, continued in Asia, and then through the U.S. trading session after Dubai said it would delay repayments on $60 billion of debt from its investment company, Dubai World. The decision raised broader questions about the safety of emerging-market debt and the strength of the global recovery.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 233 points at its morning low and ended the shortened post-Thanksgiving session with a 154.48-point decline, off 1.5%, at 10309.92, hurt by declines in all 30 components. The Dow, which entered Friday’s session at a 13-month high, ended the week down 0.1%, snapping a three-week winning streak.

Traders and money managers drew some comfort from the U.S. market’s recovery from its intraday lows Friday. Many point out that Dubai’s main creditors are European banks, not Wall Street firms. But that could still lead to gyrations next week and beyond if investors with exposure to Dubai’s troubles continue to unload commodities, U.S. shares, and other assets that have shown hefty gains this year to raise cash.

Source

Reuters reports:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell more than 1 percent in a truncated session on Friday as a possible debt default by a Dubai state-owned conglomerate led to fresh concerns about the global financial system.

The sell-off was broad, with selling concentrated mainly in the financial and commodity-linked sectors as investors trimmed positions in areas of the market most sensitive to economic uncertainty.

That hit stocks like aluminum producer Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA – News), down 2.6 percent, and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC – News), down 3 percent.

But after a slide of more than 2 percent at the open, the flight to less risky assets seemed to be subsiding, helping the major U.S. stock indexes ease back up off their lows. The U.S. dollar, which had jumped sharply as investors looked for a safe haven, pared gains and commodity prices stabilized.

The news out of the Middle East coincided with the desire by many investors to lock in 20 percent year-to-date gains in the S&P 500 after a terrible year in 2008.

“It is at least an early indication of whether investors believe this is one-time bad news or the tip of something really bad,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. “Right now, it looks like investors are taking the optimistic stance.”

The Dow Jones industrial average (DJI:^DJI – News) dropped 154.48 points, or 1.48 percent, to end at 10,309.92. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (^SPX – News) fell 19.14 points, or 1.72 percent, to 1,091.49. The Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq:^IXIC – News) lost 37.61 points, or 1.73 percent, to 2,138.44.

For the week, the Dow dipped 0.1 percent, while the S&P 500 edged up 0.01 percent and the Nasdaq slipped 0.4 percent.

Volume was light on the day after Thanksgiving. The U.S. stock market shut on Friday at 1 p.m. (1800 GMT), which was three hours shy of its normal closing bell, but the number of declining stocks still towered over those advancing.

On Wednesday, Dubai said it would ask creditors of state-owned Dubai World and Nakheel, the builder of its palm-shaped islands, for a standstill agreement as a first step toward restructuring billions of dollars of debt.

On Thursday, U.S. financial markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. But financial markets around the world shuddered, reflecting fears about the impact of a potential Dubai debt default.

It was uncertain how much exposure U.S. banks have in Dubai. But influential bank analyst Richard Bove said in a note “it does not appear that American banks have any major direct impact from this event.”

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC – News) fell 3 percent, or 48 cents, to $15.47, while Citigroup (NYSE:C – News) tumbled 2.6 percent, or 11 cents, to $4.06. These two stocks were the most heavily traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

Commodity-linked stocks sold off sharply, but stabilized after the U.S. dollar pared gains and helped lift commodity prices off their session lows.

Even so, Dow component Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA – News) fell 2.6 percent, or 34 cents, to $12.66, while gold miner Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM – News) lost 2.8 percent, or $1.55, to $53.35.

The U.S. dollar rose 0.3 percent against a basket of currencies (^DXY – News), after earlier climbing around 1 percent. U.S. crude oil futures for January dropped $2.18, or nearly 3 percent, to $75.78 a barrel.

Dow component Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM – News) shares fell 2.1 percent, or $1.60, to $74.87 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Even retailers’ stocks did not escape investors’ concerns on “Black Friday,” which marks the unofficial start to the holiday shopping period.

An S&P index of retail stocks (Chicago Options:^RLX – News) slipped 1.3 percent.

During the holiday shopping season, investors will watch for news about lines at store cash registers and insights into consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

Early indications were that while shoppers were out in force on Black Friday, they were being more selective with their purchases than they were before the recession hit in December 2007.

Shares of department store chain Macy’s Inc (NYSE:M – News) fell 3.4 percent, or 59 cents, to $16.97. The S&P consumer discretionary index (^GSPD – News) fell 1.5 percent.

Volume was sparse on the New York Stock Exchange, where only about 654.83 million shares changed hands, far below last year’s estimated daily average of 1.49 billion.

On the Nasdaq, about 963.73 million shares traded, well below last year’s daily average of 2.28 billion.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a ratio of about 6 to 1. On the Nasdaq, nearly five stocks fell for every one that rose.

(Reporting by Edward Krudy; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source

At the beginning of the month, I posted my stock picks for November 2009.

Remember, November is not over. Today is just the 24th. These stocks may reach new highs or new lows in the next couple of days.

Also remember, to be a successful trader, you must know not only when to buy stocks, but also when to sell them.

Let’s see how we did.

Here were my stock picks with their trading values at the time of the post.


Here is the proof of the post.

Let me show you the maximum profit you could have made if you had bought these stocks right after my post on November 1st, 2009 and sold at their day’s high shown below.
Assuming, you had invested $1000 each on these four stocks……

You would have made a profit of $420.91 which is a Return of Investment (ROI) of 10.5 percent which is not bad for less than a month.

Keep following my posts for stock picks.