Stocks Set for Slide
After a massive slump last week Wall Street stormed forward during trading on Monday. The NASDAQ led the way with a 4.81 percent (109.03 points) gain, followed closely by similarly massive gains on the Dow Jones (3.90 percent, 404.71 points) and the S&P 500 (4.40 percent, 48.85 points).
Unfortunately, following the huge gain yesterday, stocks slipped at the opening bell today. After posting their best day in more than a year Monday, investors fled in the morning for fear of dropping prices. The result of this flight was, of course, dropping prices.
According to Bloomberg News, stocks retreated naturally in Europe as the optimism of a weekend bailout for Greece turned into anxiety about its potential failure. This in turn brought U.S. stock futures down for the fifth time in six days.
In other news, inflation accelerated in China during April, according to Bloomberg. Consumer prices increased in the Chinese domestic market by 2.8 percent in April from a year earlier. This is the fastest monthly pace in 18 months and represents a serious problem for the Chinese central economic leaders.
China has always tried to maintain strict control over its money supply and rapid inflation is largely frowned upon. Inflating consumer prices hurts the domestic economy and domestic consumer, but the devaluing of the yuan also helps Chinese exporters. China wants inflation as a means of keeping its export prices low, but it also runs the risk of upsetting a population that is already somewhat restless.
Finally, according to CNNMoney.com, just days after its funding was agreed upon by the European Union, the Greek Ministry of Economy has already requested 14.5 billion euro ($18.4 billion) to begin covering its unfunded liabilities.











