Equities Lower on a Smattering of Ominous News

Maybe it is the FT's front page story on China's property bubble being worse than that in the US and UK. Or perhaps the article on the Eurozone's jobless rate rising to the highest level in a decade? How about the failure of Pru and AIG to agree to a new deal terms, as AIG opts to play hard ball with the insurer? I wish AIG good luck in finding another sucker to pay more for its Asian wares. Oh, and has BP plugged that leaking well yet? Nope. Down goes BP's stock. Or how about Google's bold move to ditch the internal use of Microsoft Windows on security concerns after the China hacking incident? Maybe not the best news for MSFT shareholders. Although this could merely be a savvy PR move by Google.

The news isn't any better over at the WSJ. Euro-zone banks face $239 billion in write-downs this year and next according to the ECB. So then why is the ECB tripping over itself to offer uber-cheap financing for the Euro-zone's crappy government bond holdings if the banks are insolvent? I have no idea, but the Bundesbank is pretty mad about it. Also, if the story above about China's property woes doesn't faze you, try the one about China eating into its own commodity reserves. Better yet, Dubai Holding posted a $6.2 billion loss for 2009. Does anybody care about Dubai anymore? A few months ago the bulls were writing off the news of Dubai's default claiming that it was too small to affect anything. I mean, it's not like they're another Lehman, Right? Funny now they're saying the same thing about Greece and Spain. And Portugal. Italy? Them too.