Wall Street Roundup: Betting on revolutions, shrinking the regulators

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Gold: Trading now at $1,408 per ounce, down 0.6% from Thursday. Dow Jones industrial average: Trading now at 12,116.96, up 0.4% from Thursday.

Stocks turn around. Despite the turmoil in the Middle East, and despite a downward revision of American economic growth, traders sent stock indexes up Friday morning after three days of declines.

Betting on revolutions. Even hedge fund geniuses have been uncertain of how to take advantage of the unpredictable unrest in the Middle East.

Shrinking the regulators. Last summer’s financial reform legislation gave the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a central role in monitoring the financial system, but that role may be severely curtailed by cuts in the budget put forward by congressional Republicans.

The more things change. The director of ‘Inside Job,’ which investigates the origins of the financial crisis, says ‘there has been very little change’ since the crisis.

-- Nathaniel Popper

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