Good news bears

Tuesday started out as a good day in the US stock market. There were two good pieces of economic news - low inflation and strong economic confidence. The S&P 500 index rose by 0.7% in response. But then there came the announcement of a new $1bn loss in the mortgage market. Investors fled, and the market fell by 1.6% in a few hours. European markets dropped even more sharply on Wednesday morning. Panic? There’s some of that. After all, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, said...