>They warned that profits wouldn't be as big this quarter as everyone
>thought. They blamed it on Europe. They announced after yesterday's
>close, and it immediately traded down 20% on the ECNs; stayed there
>all day today. It set off a big reaction tho, with both the NASDAQ
>and the DJIA opening down HUGE, but the DJIA recovered to close up
>80 points and the NASDAQ came back a significant amount as well.
>
>Interesting coincidence on the day we propped up the Euro ...?
Today's FT says the intervention's been in the works for a while. The U.S., though portrayed as opposed to intervention, went along as soon as it got a unanimous request from the EU.
The article also points out that, unlike the U.S, where the Treasury dictates dollar policy to the Fed, EU governments have no official power over the European Central Bank to demand intervention - it's all the ECB's decision. In practice, it's more collegial than that, but still the ECB's statutory independence is far greater than the Fed's, and its mandate much narrower (to guarantee only price stability, while the Fed is charged to maintain general prosperity).
Doug