Tempi duri per la speculazione

July 28 (Bloomberg) -- Hedge funds may post their worst month in at least five years after bets on financial stocks falling and on crude oil rising backfired.
Short selling of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac jumped in the first two weeks of July as the stocks fell on concern that shareholders would be wiped out even if the government bailed out the entities. Instead, the shares doubled in six trading days, catching out investors who shorted the stock, selling borrowed shares in anticipation of buying them back at a cheaper price.
Some of the most-shorted European stocks, mortgage lenders and homebuilders in the U.K., also soared.
Homebuilder Barratt Developments Plc more than doubled in three weeks, while rival Taylor Wimpey Plc almost doubled in 11 trading days.
(Bloomberg) -- Consumer confidence in Germany, Europe's biggest economy, dropped to the lowest in more than five years as soaring energy prices sapped purchasing power and the economic outlook deteriorated.
U.K. house values fell by the most in at least seven years in July and the property slump will continue for months, Hometrack Ltd. said.
(Reuters) - Wall Street executives expect the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to extend temporary curbs on short-selling and widen them to cover additional stocks, the Wall Street Journal reported.During a call with regulators on Friday, the hedge fund industry trade group got indications that the SEC planned an extension of the emergency period and the limits could include insurance, housing-industry and financial stocks, the newspaper said.

Basta pensare che l'azione Barratt era arrivata a valere meno del profitto previsto per azione stessa (P/E=0,8) .
Questo non significa che la speculazione sia tutto , come ci dice la Bloomberg sul valore delle abitazioni in UK .
Certo che il gran parlare di grande crisi del '29 aiuta a creare le paure (vedi Germania) e accusare la speculazione senza fare nulla (almeno la SEC ci prova...) contribuisce ad aumentare l'incertezza.
Una ultima informazione : leggendo gli annunci dei profitti trimestrali si ricava l'impressione di una quasi parità tra le imprese che guadagnano di più e quelle che guadagnano di meno (escludendo le bance , ovviamente).