Stock Markets got pretty jumpy in the mid-1970s after the 1973 oil price crunch transferred vast amounts of wealth from the developed world to the oil-rich sheikdoms, and one of the most famous rumours to stir the markets back then was one that the Saudis intended to bid for IBM: only the megalomaniac Saddam Hussein is crazed enough to want to do anything like that this time around, and the way things were going on Wall Street yesterday in the wake of his Kuwaiti adventure, he will soon be able to pick the company up for the price of a day’s output from Kuwait’s oilfields, with small change left over to pick up DEC the Dow was off 104 points by 10.20am New York time, and all the patient rebuilding in the IBM share price was undone as the stock languished at $102.375, off $5.50 on the day, and DEC was off $3.625 at $68.125.
