Friday, November 24, 2006

Reuters' Cries Wolf as "Dollar Crumbles"

This Reuters' headline caught my eye this evening:
Stocks slip as dollar crumbles
The written summary of the brief video report states:
Nov. 24 - U.S. stocks finished a quiet post-holiday session in negative territory as a four-day slide in the dollar gave investors something to complain about.
The Dow lost 46 points to 12,280.
The Nasdaq shed 5 points to 2,460.
Crude oil rose 66 cents to $59.90 a barrel.
I was just about to convert my dollars into Euros or whatever they call money in China but paused for just a moment to check the actual data.

It seems that the NYSE Dow closed the week down .5%. But the NASDAQ closed UP .6%. That doesn't seem so bad.

Supposedly the dollar fell to the lowest rate compared to the Euro in 1-1/2 years. But, when you check the figures, the London stock market fell almost as much as the Dow did today; the French stock market fell 50% MORE than the Dow and the German stock market fell almost 250% MORE than the Dow.

THAT sure makes the Euro look attractive, doesn't it?

It turns out that, on a rather quiet and boring day of international finance, Reuters somehow felt the need to put a dramatic, earth-shattering negative spin on . . . well . . . nothing much at all!

Memo to Reuters: Why don't you save the "end of the world" headlines for the actual end of the world!

When one bothers to check the actual facts, things look much better than Reuters might want you to think.

Can anyone explain to me why this seems so . . . so . . . normal for Reuters?