BUY SOME INSURANCE

摘要

The financial market turmoil triggered by the subprime mess is setting new lows for financial services stocks. Banks, real estate investment trusts, brokerages and mortgage companies have endured valuation drops that defy explanation. Emotion, not reason, is driving these declines. Buying opportunities are the result, although you might wait until financial shares are cheaper still.rnFears about the economy's health and the subprime imbroglio's depth are primarily to blame, along with short-selling and year-end tax-related trading. Since nobody seems to know what is inside all those collateralized debt obligations and their kindred collateralized mortgage obligations—mega-investment pools that bundle subprime loans—2007 audited results should help bolster confidence when they're released sometime in the new year. Not that all the CDO and CMO losses are behind us. More pain lies ahead. One optimistic note for the near term, though: Tax selling, which tends to depress stock prices, will end in December and thus lay the groundwork for a January effect (when investors gobble up the marked-down stocks, leading to a mini-rally).