"Many global indices have failed to follow the DJIA and 500 during the last week, and we see this as a major warning that a pullback or correction is near." "Despite the hoopla over the (Dow industrials) eclipsing 12,000 and the S&P 500 nearing 1,300, we see widening cracks in the dam," Sam Stovall, S&P's chief equity strategist, said in an analysis for clients. It is boldest forecast yet from a leading firm that the current market is overheated. Standard & Poor's, for one, is predicting that its benchmark index, the S&P 500, is likely to drop up to 10 percent in the next two weeks, based on a variety of factors both technical and fundamental. As for strategy, even those with the most dour of outlooks say a pullback will present a buying opportunity, while selling into strength may not be the best strategy in a market considered likely to bounce back. Tough policing and soft speeches won’t do the trick.The question now seems only a matter of timing and degree. “No government can create jobs overnight, but what they need to do is create a credible vision – a path towards a slow prosperity that people can believe in.
The main external target of complaint seems to be Iran, hence nothing sectarian. “There is a sense, particularly in the Shia south, that Iraq is serving regional interests and ‘masters’ than its own diffuse interests. In cutting communication links, authorities hoped to curtail the demonstrators’ ability to organise.Ĭlarisse Pásztory, a senior European diplomat who served in both Baghdad and Erbil, said the protests appear to have started organically, fed by unaddressed grievances over services and the direction of the country. The internet remained severed in much of the country except the Kurdish north, which is connected to the web via a different source. His loyalists were active in protests two years ago in Baghdad, with some launching incursions into the Green Zone, where politicians, embassies and military leaders are based. Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the powerful Sadr movement which claims the support of up to 4 million Shia Iraqis, said on Thursday that he supports “peaceful demonstrations”. Iraqi leaders have made few public statements, amid fears that organised political groups, some with foreign backing, could join the fray over the weekend – adding impetus to protests that could prove even harder to contain. Transparency International ranked Iraq 168 out of 180 nations in its Corruptions Perceptions Index in 2018.ĭespite Iraq’s vast oil wealth and the robust global price for crude, services remain basic, with much of the country experiencing only 12 hours of electricity each day, especially during scorching summer months.
#Internet blackouts skyrocket amid global unrest series
Iraqi officials have drawn widespread scorn from many citizens over the past decade, in which a series of administrations have been accused of pilfering up to $450bn in state funds.
The US embassy in the Green Zone said it was suspending consular services, amid threats from demonstrators to storm the fortified areas in the coming days. The city’s international airport was barricaded for a while by demonstrators and the Green Zone in the centre of the capital hit by what appeared to be a rocket, or mortar.Ī statement released by the US-led coalition said forces “reserve the right to defend ourselves”. Two border crossings with Iran were closed. In response, the Iraqi prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, ordered a city-wide curfew across Baghdad from 5am on Thursday, adding to those imposed elsewhere a day earlier. The size and momentum of the protests have startled senior officials, as has the apparent lack of organisation by the country’s many vested political interests, who have mobilised large numbers in earlier rallies as a means of applying pressure on officials.
0 kommentar(er)
