History repeats itself: Dow Jones jumps and dives in day of turbulence

Remember this article from October 20, 1987 , almost 18 years ago from The Philadelphia Inquirer:

By Jennifer Lin and Ron Wolf, Inquirer Staff Writers

POSTED: October 20, 1987

NEW YORK — Panic gripped Wall Street yesterday during a chaotic day of selling that left the Dow Jones industrial average an estimated 508.32 points lower, investors $503 billion poorer and experts and individuals alike wondering if the worst was over – or just beginning.

Investors and traders watched in disbelief and horror as stock prices went into the type of free fall not seen since the Great Depression.

In a little more than two weeks, the stock market has lost everything it gained since the beginning of the year, and more. The closely watched Dow Jones index of 30 leading industrial companies fell to 1,738.41 points, a decline of 22.6 percent from Friday. On Oct. 28, 1929, the start of the Great Depression, the Dow lost 38.33 points, or 12.9 percent of its value. The worst percentage loss for the Dow occurred on Dec. 12, 1914, when the average lost 24.4 percent of its value, or 17.42 points.

The Dow has lost nearly 1,000 points since its peak of 2,722.42 on Aug. 25. Yesterday, it closed at its lowest point since April 6, 1986, when the average was at 1,735.51.

And now today from NBC News:

In a historic day of turbulence, the stock market whipped between nauseating drops and roaring comebacks on Monday before closing with another big loss.

Seized by fears that the Chinese economy is not as healthy as it appeared to be, investors sold with abandon at the opening bell and sent the Dow Jones industrial average down almost 1,100 points, the biggest decline on record in a trading day.

Then the market staged a dramatic comeback and almost erased its losses, coming within about 115 points of break-even. By late afternoon, stocks were sinking again — and the Dow closed down 588 points, or 3.6 percent, at 15,871.

Homeowner’s insurance costs twice as much with poor credit

Homeowners with poor credit pay exactly twice as much for homeowner’s insurance as people with excellent credit, according to a new insuranceQuotes.com study.

Homeowners with median credit pay 32% more than those with excellent credit.

People with poor credit pay at least twice as much as people with excellent credit in 38 states and Washington, D.C. West Virginia’s 202% increase is the highest in the nation, followed by D.C. (185%), Ohio (185%) and Montana (179%).

Three states prohibit insurers from using credit to calculate homeowner’s insurance premiums: California, Massachusetts and Maryland.

Insurance companies are technically allowed to consider homeowners’ credit scores in Florida, but insuranceQuotes.com found that credit does not typically affect premiums there.

Read on.

Black Monday hits housing, mortgage finance worse than Dow, Nasdaq

Update: Housing stocks making up some ground, most still in red

[Update 1 at 1:40 p.m. ET]

The Black Monday market collapse is hitting the stocks that drive the housing and mortgage finance economy worse than the major indices in early trading.

The HW 30 — HousingWire’s proprietary list of major players in the space — was down 4.75% as of 10:09 a.m. ET.

That compares to the Dow, down 3.12%, and the Nasdaq, down 4.72% at the same time.

The Street was expecting volatility today — the New York Stock Exchange invoked Rule 48 in an effort to speed up and smooth trading at the market open. The 2007 rule means that designated market makers will not have to disseminate price indications before the bell, making it easier and faster to open stocks.

Ellie Mae (ELLI) was the biggest loser in morning trading, down 10.6%.

Read on.

Class Cert. Upheld In Wells Fargo Overdraft MDL

Law360, New York (August 24, 2015, 2:08 PM ET) — A Florida federal judge has shot down Wells Fargo Bank NA’s request to reconsider class certification in a multidistrict litigation accusing the bank of improperly processing debit card and ATM transactions in order to maximize overdraft fees.

Wells Fargo failed to show a change in controlling law, newly-discovered evidence or clear error which would call for a reconsideration, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King ruled Friday.

“After careful consideration, the court concludes that defendant has not presented anything that would change the court’s original determination on…

Source: Law360

A columnist puts 25% down on a home, has $300 unpaid parking tickets yet doesn’t qualify for a mortgage

Housingwire:

What happen when a columnist for Tribune puts 25% down on a house, but has $300 in unpaid parking tickets?

He doesn’t qualify for a mortgage, that’s what.

Stephen Moore moans about his frustration here:

My situation was doubly frustrating because I’m making a 25% down payment on the house. Researchers have examined huge samples of the portfolio of defaulted loans during the 2007-09 housing crisis. Virtually all the defaulted loans had low down payments, with many having less than 5% down, thanks to government “affordable housing” mandates.

Donald Trump Puts ‘Hedge Fund Guys’ on Notice

“The hedge fund guys are getting away with murder.”—Donald Trump

25 hedge fund managers made more than 24 billion, enough to pay the salaries of 425,000 public school teachers.

The billionaire Republican front-runner assailed hedge fund managers in a Sunday appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation in which he portrayed himself as a champion of the middle class.

“They’re paying nothing. And it’s ridiculous,” Trump said of those who make a living running hedge funds. “I want to save the middle class. You know, the middle class—the hedge fund guys didn’t build this country. These are guys that shift paper around and they get lucky. And, by the way, when the market collapses, like it is now, the market is going down, they’re losing a fortune.”

Sanders, the leading challenger to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, has routinely gone after hedge fund managers during his populist campaign.

For Trump, who often boasts of his own wealth and business dealings, taxation of hedge fund earnings has not been a central campaign focus. Still, on Sunday, Trump took aim at those who profited from the investment strategy.

“Half of them, look, they’re energetic, they’re very smart, but a lot of them, it’s like they’re paper pushers. They make a fortune, they pay no tax. It’s ridiculous, OK? This—and some of them are friends of mine. Some of them, I couldn’t care less about. It’s the wrong thing,” Trump said. “The hedge fund guys are getting away with murder. They’re making a tremendous amount of money. They have to pay taxes. I want to lower the rates for the middle class. The middle class is the one, they’re getting absolutely destroyed. This country doesn’t have—won’t have a middle class very soon.”

Read on.

Embattled Promontory Group is staffed with bigwig regulators

Promontory Group, the prominent Washington, DC, bank adviser that agreed Tuesday to pay $15 million to settle breach-of-ethics allegations by New York state regulators, is known to be staffed with bigwig regulators, writes The Post’s Michelle Celarier.

First and foremost, it was founded by Gene Ludwig, the Comptroller of the Currency under President Clinton.

But one bigwig being overlooked is Elizabeth McCaul, the partner in charge of its New York office. McCaul is the former superintendent of banks of the New York State Banking Department — the precursor of the regulator that went after Promontory.

Read on.