Ring around the rosy,
A pocket full of posies;
ashes, ashes
we all fall down!
Happy Pandemic Day!
That’s right, the World Health Organization has declared the first Global pandemic since 1968. You may be aware that the above nursery rhyme alludes to the Bubonic Plague that struck England in the 17th century and was used to helpchildren remember the stages (and be warned): A rose-colored rash was a sign of the plague; posies -that were believed to purify the air and were to bekept in yourpockets; ashes were what was left after they burned the bodies of plague victims. Pretty grim stuff…
As of Thursday, the WHO reported 28,774 confirmed cases of H1N1 in 74 countries, including 144 deaths. While the new flu strain has spread rapidly, fewer than 1% of reported H1N1 cases have resulted in deaths. The most recent pandemic in 1968 killed about one million people, according to some estimates. The most lethal flu pandemic of the past 100 years, in 1918, is believed to have killed tens of millions of people. The original great plague, known as “The Black Death,” wiped out about 1/4 of the World’s population in 1400…
A sharp jump in cases in Australia, where more than 1,300 people have been diagnosed, contributed to the decision to raise the alert level. In Hong Kong, the government on Thursday ordered the closure of all nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools for two weeks after a dozen students at one school tested positive for swine flu. The U.S. has confirmed more than 13,000 cases, including more than 1,000 hospitalizations and 27 deaths. While many states are seeing a decrease in cases, they are rising in the northeastern part of the country.
While we weren’t expecting it to be the flu (or the Spanish Inquisition for that matter) that would pop our little rally bubble, it’s as good an excuse as any for the markets to let off a little steam. A global pandemic was only one of the “10 Things That Could Still Go Wrong With The Economy” featured in Clusterstock this morning. Cramer sees none of these things as he herds his sheeple into BAC right AFTER they make a 10% gain on the day in what is possibly his most irresponsible call of the week (hard to say, there’s so many). Those poor suckers acted as an after-hours”stick save” for Jim’s buddies, who couldn’t quite make the exits fast enough into the close. Criminal Narrators…
