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Landesman described the dealmaking as "Band-Aid after Band-Aid," rather than a real solution addressing Europe's deep-rooted problems of overspending. "You can't do that forever," Landesman said. "There is a day of reckoning." If it is hard to predict news out of Europe, it's equally difficult to guess how investors will react to it
-- panicking one day and shrugging off similar developments on another day. There are plenty of days the market swings on news out of Europe that is merely incremental, or even when there's no news at all. "A possible European recession? I don't really think that's new," said Armstrong. "For people reacting as if this is new news, I think that's poor discipline as a (long-term) investor." Europe's debt crisis and concerns about U.S. earnings haven't been the only problems for the market in recent weeks. There are also signs that job growth is slowing and that the Federal Reserve is disinclined to pump more money into the economy. Wednesday's gains still don't make up for the market's second-quarter losses. Wednesday was just the second gain for the Dow in the seven trading days so far this quarter. The Dow was up 8 percent at the end of the first quarter, but it's down 3 percent so far for the second.
From a longer-term viewpoint, however, the market's recent swings have been relatively mild. The Dow plunged nearly 550 points in the five days ending Tuesday, a molehill compared to the mountain of last summer's frightening drops. Those included an 858-point, eight-day plunge in July and August, as Congress bickered over government debt limits and the S&P prepared to downgrade the U.S. debt rating. In fact, the market's steady rise from Thanksgiving to the end of March has kept the losses of the last few days from being any worse, said Frank Fantozzi, CEO of Planned Financial Services in Cleveland. "It's like a person," Fantozzi said. "If you're feeling good overall and a couple negative things happen, you just shrug it off. If you're feeling lousy and you get some good news, you still feel lousy." Among stocks making big moves: Titan Machinery, which sells agricultural and construction equipment, jumped nearly 17 percent after reporting a big increase in quarterly profit. Cellphone maker Nokia plummeted nearly 16 percent after warning that heavy competition will hurt first-quarter results. Travelzoo, the online travel company, soared more than 28 percent after reports that it plans to sell itself to private firms.
[Associated
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