Career News 24/7: GREECE IS IN CHAOS AND STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's What You Need To Know, May 7, 2012

Monday, May 7, 2012

GREECE IS IN CHAOS AND STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's What You Need To Know, May 7, 2012

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Monday, May 7, 2012

Sunday's eurozone elections end with a couple neo-Nazis in Greek parliament.

First the scoreboard:

Dow: 13,008, -29.7, -0.2%
S&P 500: 1,369, +0.5, +0.0%
NASDAQ: 2,957, +1.4, +0.0%

And now the top stories:

As expected, France voted socialist party leader Francois Hollande to the presidency, replacing incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. Hollande is opposed to the eurozone's existing fiscal compact. Rather, he favors more ECB involvement and higher domestic taxes.
The Greek elections, on the other hand, were much more interesting. Incumbent parties PASOK and New Democracy won only around 35 percent of voter support. Seats were split among five other parties including the KKE (communists) and Golden Dawn (neo-Nazis). That's right, neo-Nazis. And their symbol resembles the swastika. This Is What You Need To Know About The Crisis In Greece >
Analysts were quick to sound off on all of the elections. Deutsche Bank's George Saravelos called it a "significant market-negative surprise." With anti-austerity parties in parliament, current planned cuts are less likely to go through, which puts future bailout funds at risk. Goldman's Themistoklis Fiotakis shared Saravelos' sentiment. Citi economists have boosted the odds of a "Grexit," or Greek exit from the eurozone, to a range of 50 to 75 percent. Here's What Comes Next For Greece >
Surprisingly, markets held up well. Barclays' Barry Knapp attributed the optimism to upcoming U.S. presidential election. "Elections breed optimism, and the idea that we might get a new CEO of the country really could trigger a fair bit of resiliency in the markets and perhaps even a rally as we get closer to the elections," Knapp told Bloomberg. Bank of America strategist Savita Subramanian actually boosted her year-end target on the S&P 500 to 1,450. David Bianco Presents: 20 Guiding Principles For Investing In The Stock Market >
The markets ended the day on a strong economic note. According to the Federal Reserve, consumer credit expanded by $21.3 billion in March, crushing expectations of $9.8 billion.
Don't Miss – ADAPTIVE MARKET HYPOTHESIS: Andrew Lo's Groundbreaking Work Combining Rational And Behavioral Market Theory >