Counter Terrorism
on Wall Street

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 32 points the day of the attack, but gained another 147 points on 8 July to close at 10,449.14. The NASDAQ rose 37.22 to close at 2,112.88.

As of 8 July, 50 are confirmed dead in London, an additional 674 were reported as injured. As many as 20 people were still missing at press time.

Resiliency is the economic key in 2005. Rising oil prices --which have skyrocketed in June to $62 per barrel-- worry Wall Street less than prices did at $50 per barrel. Oil prices closed the week at $59.63 per barrel.

Wall Street analysts praised the Bureau of Labor Statistics for its 8 July unemployment figures in the United States --which fell to 5 percent-- even though only 146,000 jobs were created in a workforce of 154 million.

Direct from the Bureau of Labor Statistics however, the actual number of unemployed was 9.1 million --counting current (7.5 million) and marginally (1.6 million) unemployed professionals-- which is actually 6 percent of the total workforce. Those figures seem to miss press reports, because the numbers are buried in fine print.

Great Britain's economy too is set to weather the tide of terrorist attacks. European markets on 8 July gained back their initial "terror shock" from 24 hours earlier. The London Stock Exchange's key index, the FTSE 100, closed up 1.4 percent at 5,232, around its level before the attacks. Germany's DAX was up 1.5 percent at 4,597.97, and in Paris, the CAC 40 benchmark was up 1.9 percent to 4,300.31.

Economists said the real point is that in following terrorist attacks in New York City on 11 September 2001, and attacks in Madrid on 11 March 2004, there were no additional attacks in those cities, thus the economy was able to recover. Same too shall be the case for London they said.

Goldman Sachs U.S. Economics Research team wrote that, "If the attacks (in London) turn out to be isolated, then calm should return quickly."

The British currency however lost ground both days against the dollar to close at $1.73 per pound, or a 19-month low on 8 July. Great Britain's economy was already in trouble, with consumer confidence sliding and overall spending flat. Economic growth for the first half of 2005 had dropped below that of the European Union.