As a cheerful Bloomberg
headline reminds us, equity investors are facing their worst June since the
Great Depression. And sure enough, most major markets (the Hang Seng, Dax, CAC,
S&P 500 … ) are down more than -8% this month, pulled lower by a number of
concerns including a) the health of Western banks, b) the rise in oil prices, c)
deteriorating economic growth and d) worsening inflationary
pressures.
If the current month ended today the
Dow Jones Industrial Index would be down 9.4% and have locked in the worst June
since 1930. Check the following chart, coursey of Paul Kedrosky, for the painful
picture.
“Granted, June 2008 is not in the top
30 bad months of all time, so let’s keep our heads on, but if it feels like it’s
been a nasty, nasty month, that is because it has been,” said
Kedrosky.
Source: Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed & Bloomberg, June 26, 2008.
