SHOOT: The fundamentals remain the same. Property markets are dead. Unemployment is a shocker. Manufacturing is flat, retail is flat. Company's fire their staff, giving their balance sheets a nice shine, but otherwise nothing has changed. It does tell you something about companies though. They're addicted to profits, but they're disconnected from real world realities. To keep the game going you have to keep the consumer consuming, and by taking away his job, you also take away his house. And so the cookie crumbles. QED.
BANGKOK (AP) -- World stock markets faltered Wednesday as signs of weakness in the U.S. housing sector tempered optimism about better-than-expected company earnings.
Asia's modest fall followed losses on Wall Street after the government said applications for home building permits slipped in September by the largest amount in five months while construction of new homes and apartments was weaker than anticipated.
The figures were a discouraging signal for future construction in the world's largest economy and diluted the enthusiasm generated by a string of improved quarterly results from U.S. corporate heavyweights.
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