SEA Of RED - 2008 Markets Year In Review

It would be a MASSive understatement to describe 2008 as just a 'tough' year for the GLOBAL Financial Markets and Financial Services Industry. Many are going further than that and are already referring to 2008 as the most difficult and trying U.S. market environment since The Great Depression of the 1930's. Rigorous academic discourse and hyperbole aside, here are some eye-opening STATS courtesy of Bloomberg to tie a ribbon on things + put the 2008 GLOBAL financial FALLout in some perspective :


* Global stock markets lost about 1/2 of their value in 2008, or $30.1 TRILLION !


* In the U.S., $7.2 TRILLION of shareholder value was wiped off the books, as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 39% through Dec. 30 and the Nasdaq dropped 42%


* The Amex Securities Brokers/Dealers Index (fyi, the Broker/Dealer Index is comprised of 12 of the most widely known firms in the brokerage sector...the ticker is XBD) hit a high of 267.69 on June 1, 2007...as of Dec. 30, 2008, the index stood at 74.26 (down 72%!)


* The wave of writedowns and losses that swamped financial institutions around the world reached $720 Billion this year.


* During 2008, the global financial-services industry announced 220,360 JOB CUTS.


* According to the FDIC, there were 25 Bank FAILURES in 2008, the most in 15 years.


* Lehman Brothers (the artist formerly known as LEH)., with assets of $639 Billion, filed the LARGEST bankruptcy in U.S. history on September 15th, 2008...its creditors may have lost as much as $75 Billion, the firm’s chief restructuring officer said.


* In the Largest U.S. bank failure in history, Seattle-based Washington Mutual (the artist formerly known as WM) collapsed in September with approx $307 Billion in assets.


* New York-based Citigroup Inc. (C), whose shares lost 78% of their value this year, needed $20 Billion in U.S. bailout funds in November on top of an earlier $25 Billion infusion of capital. The government was also forced to guarantee $306 Billion of the bank’s troubled assets.


* The U.S. government was forced to rescue the WORLD's LARGEST insurance company, American International Group (AIG), with a $152.5 Billion package of investments, loans and capital infusions

* General Motors (GM) and Chrysler LLC will get $13.4 Billion in federal loans to stay afloat until President-elect Barack Obama’s administration can devise a rescue plan of its own.


* Overall, the U.S. Federal Government has committed $8.5 TRILLION of stimulus in 2008 in order to jumpstart the U.S. economy


* Global merger activity fell to $2.5 TRILLION in deals announced in 2008 vs. the record 4.1 TRILLION worth of deals announced in 2007 (down 39%)


* Hedge funds lost 18% of their value for the year through November, the worst year since record-keeping began in 1990, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. Morgan Stanley estimated that, by year end, at least 620 hedge funds will have closed.


* According to Investment Company Institute, a Washington-based firm, individual investors pulled $215.7 Billion from stock market mutual funds during the first 11 months of 2008...this compares to a net inflow of $91 Billion during the same period in 2007



bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=ataVotdLreS0



Data Courtesy: Bloomberg