Facebook Continues to Fall

Facebook loses over $20 billion 

Facebook shares continue to fall as nervous investors question Facebook's ability to translate a billion user profiles into actual revenue.

The question is how to generate sufficient revenue to justify the astronomical market cap.  Ad space alone won't do it, even with close to 1 billion users.  GM recently pulled $10 million in advertising from Facebook.  Presumably the ads weren't generating sufficient return.

The real gold is the amount of personal data that Facebook has.  But, how they can use it is the question.  Privacy has been a major concern for Facebook users and they likely will not take kindly to any sudden moves to sell personal information to marketers. 

Facebook has a tough road ahead.

Market Uncertainty Over Greece and France

Markets decline over French and Greek voter rejection of austerity measures.

With Europe, the largest economy in the world, effectively in recession, and with voters rejecting more austerity measures (Sarkozy is the 11th European leader ousted since 2008), markets around the world have tumbled. 


Previous good news about increased U.S. demand for goods has been shrugged off by investors.

Canadian Manufacturing Exports Improve

Purchasing Managers Index

Increased U.S. demand is helping drive Canadian exports, which is good news for manufacturers.

New hiring continued although at a slower pace.  There is cautious optimism in the manufacturing sectors with an increase in new contracts with (primarily) U.S. clients.

While the news is good, manufacturers are not out of the woods yet and must remain focused on cost management while sales begin a slow (but not steady) increase.