When was the last time the market dropped 500 points? Yep, right after 9.11. Today’s events – we can blame China, but I don’t buy it – I sense the US markets were waiting for a reason to head for the hills. It reminded me of a few events in the tech world – 9.11, the dot com bust, the Asian flu.
Each of those events predicated major changes in the world, and certainly in my life and the lives of tons of folks in our industry. But this time, I’m not sure. It’s not like we have a ton of overvalued stocks out there in the web world, like we did in the late 90s, but….I’m still uneasy about where this might go. Are you?
Black Monday – October 19, 1987 – the Dow Jones Industrial Average and The S&P Dropped 500 points. During the previous 5 days the major indexes dropped 30%.
Likely causes attributed were: computer trading and derivative securities, illiquidity, trade and budget deficits, and overvaluation
The market rallied the next two days – and regained its loses completely in two years
Yeah, but in 2001 (and 1987), the Dow was significantly lower than it is today. 400 points (the actual drop) is only around 3.25% of the actual market value.
Many second tier Internet stocks are still cheap. MIVA, LOOK, LOCM especially inexpensive. INSP, MCHX and IACI are more pricy but decent plays on valuation. I’m a net buyer today.
Not ouching GOOG but I would like to own YHOO cheaper on buyout considerations.
On the one hand, I agree with Mike; we’re not nearly as overvalued as we were during some of those other periods and probably don’t have as far to fall. On the other hand, I don’t think we’ve even begun to see the impact that the rapidly expanding Asian markets will have on our economy. Personally, I’ve started learning Chinese, just to cover my bases 🙂