Markets move up! Markets move down?

Markets (and myself), took a bit of a proverbial, and psychological, towelling last week, amidst concerns about lemmings and fiscal cliffs, trojan horses, and alphabet soup (EU GDP).

And whilst these are genuine concerns, from which you can suggest that they are rightly being accounted for, none of them are new, and questions the sense of logic that prompted markets to rise in the first place before coming back down, and then some. 
Strangely, markets started to move ahead as the uncertainty surrounding the next President of the United States of America, appeared to lessen as polls pointed towards the incumbent Barack Obama. 

As recently as election day itself the DJIA was moving up with such as United Technologies driving them (U.S. Stocks Stage Election Day Rally; DJIA Notches Triple-Digit Gain!).
And I've purposely picked United Technologies, which rose 2.7% on election day, because as a large US employer, and a conglomerate who's interests include defence, it surely wouldn't be affected by tax rises and cuts in "defence" spending would it?

Forearmed with this knowledge, and putting European woes aside for a minute, why then did markets drop dramatically once the uncertainty became a certainty as President Barack Obama made his victory tweet and returned to the Whitehouse.
Almost upon the last letter of his historic tweet (1 million retweets), US index futures were indicating the probability of a 100 point fall in the DJIA as speculator attention moved once again to the impending fiscal cliff of tax rises and spending cuts in January.

100 points up, and a 100 points down.

None of this is breaking news though. 
But if markets hadn't moved up then it would not have seemed such a dramatic fall which once again raises the question of short term market moves and who benefits.
For a small private investor such as myself it can drive you mad and is probably the biggest barrier to anyone thinking of investing in shares as it creates such a dramatic image of risk.

As to European GDP figures, shhh, its a secret but did you know there has been a recession and rising unemployment in Europe which might lead to lower output!
Ah, so you did know, I bet you didn't know that Greece has problems though and, despite agreeing to tax rises and budget cuts, can't seem to implement them all.

There does not seem to be the will in Greek leadership to turn the country around whilst it is being spoon-fed and trained by the EU.
Greece really needs to be left alone to fix itself as that is the only way by which they will accept the unpalatable decisions and support them.
I wonder when the case will be heard in the European Court of Human Rights that Greece is being put upon by its northern neighbours?

My Portfolio seems to be full of potential bad news at the moment as well, with Apple dropping amidst speculated supply chain constraints (its struggling to meet pent up demand!!!), and future dividend concerns across National Grid, Vodafone, and Aviva. 
The latter, which I was concerned to read about in the Telegraph's Questor column (Sunday share tips: Aviva, Staffline, G4S), where the columnist reports that analysts expect a cut next year. Funny that this has not filtered through into consensus forecasts yet? 
Some analysts do then and some don't, hence the consensus, or average.
But, worryingly there is a change of language here, despite the Chairman seeming to understand its importance to shareholders and suggesting it would be a last resort if the steps identified to shore up the company's capital position don't come to fruition.
I wonder how much is speculated and how much is leaked to give shareholders time to acclimatize themselves to expecting a cut?
More uncertainty then.

And, apparently we are no longer shopping at Morrison and Tesco's either, and BG Group can't get at its gas yet. 
On BG Group, it is annoying that, according to internet sources, on the 7th September, the COO Martin Houston apparently sold 56,034 shares at 1269.07p, raising £711,111.25 ahead of the hastily brought forward Halloween statement that prompted a 20% fall in the share price.
Of course, as the Chief Operating Officer and an Executive Director, he would not have any foreknowledge of business performance or production delays, would he? 
I'd like to think it's just a co-incidence.

On the subject of supermarkets though, why don't they stop giving us piles of paper to carry around and just cut the prices in store? 
Morrison's also need to stop trying to catch the ship, its sailed. 
The niche for Morrison's label clothing must be small. The stores aren't large enough so it must surely cost more to set-up and market than it will realise anytime soon.
Its a worry when new management teams come in and want to make a mark by spending the family silver.
Find me a supermarket whose mission statement is "to sell good quality groceries at the right price in an attractive environment (with car parking spaces large enough that my car doors won't keep getting bashed)".
The last bit is me being grumpy but is still a factor in where I choose to shop.

But Morrison's have finally taken the one step forward, to keep pace with rivals, that they should have taken years ago though, and thats to extend their opening hours.

Anyway, I've caught a cold in more ways than one so you might be able to tell that I am feeling a bit grumpier than usual.
And that being the case I will sign off now.


Related article links:
- http://online.wsj.com: U.S. Stocks Stage Election Day Rally; DJIA Notches Triple-Digit Gain
- http://www.sharecast.com: Sunday share tips: Aviva, Staffline, G4S