Stock market ups, downs keep investors nervous

Stock market gyrations of the past few days leading up to the close of the second quarter tomorrow and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate announcement today have caused a lot of uneasiness with investors.  What’s interesting to Grumpy Editor are Wall Street’s reasons for such unusual wild swings.

On Monday, from a Dow Jones industrial average intraday high of almost 129 points, the DJIA nosedived, closing down 8.21 points with “Wall Street firms’ vulnerability to risky mortgage loans” cited as being the trigger.

(Keep in mind risky, or subprime, mortgages have been in the news for several weeks.  Every time subprime is mentioned loudly, the stock market drops.)

Then on Tuesday, more price swings as the DJIA at its intraday high was up more than 100 points before dropping to close down 14.39 points.  This time the months-old standby --- inflation --- was mentioned by analysts along with the possibility of higher interest rates and, of course, “bad bets on risky mortgages.”

Yesterday, as investors awaited today’s word on the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting on interest rates, the DJIA rallied, closing up a solid 90.07 points, lifted by strength in the technology and financial sectors --- with no mentions of risky loans and inflation, both factors that affect those two sectors.

But more zigzagging is expected today just prior to and after the Fed decision on interest rates, to be announced at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.