Panic and Mayhem?

Hopefully not.

There has been an interesting mix of opinions and emotions on CNBC. It feels like the strategists and managers are not very concerned by today's action and the media personalities are trying to whip the audience up. It might be my imagination.

I think I have heard Maria say three times that there is nothing fundamental happening in Europe and question why investing there makes sense. Perhaps I am the only one that finds this odd. Between my clients and my own portfolio I have exposure to about eight European common stocks. Six of the eight were up today. I'm sorry but why is this a bad place to invest?

There is no doubt that today was a bad day. We had a couple of fears resurface; higher oil prices and visibility for decreased global demand for US debt. The market is right to worry about these things. There were other areas besides Europe that worked today; Australia, New Zealand and Brazil really stood out as did the one South African gold stock my clients own (but I'm not sure if other South African names did well). The point is not to pat myself on the back. I have been writing throughout the existence of this blog that if you have a properly diversified portfolio there should always be stocks that are up and always stocks that are down. Days like today, Maria notwithstanding, make my point for me.

If you have not done so already I would urge you to learn about investing in foreign stocks (or funds) and explore how this might fit into your financial plan.