2005年NPR美国国家公共电台七月-Stocks Shudder at Early London Attack

On the financial markets, traders reacted quickly to today’s news, London’s FTSE Index lost about 4% of its value but then recovered about half of that before the close of trading.

In the US stocks managed to shake off bad news from abroad and closed up on the day. NPR’s Adam Davidson has this report on how the markets interpreted today’s events.

One way to measure how panicky the markets are about the future is to look at the price of gold. When investors¹ are scared, many turn to financial instruments with stable secure value and little is more stable than gold. Sure enough, right after the bombings in London, gold prices moved up. Andrew Spendon who runs global Effects, a currency-trading firm in New York was awakened² by a staff when the attacks happened. He then watched the price of gold rise.

It took about one, two, three, four minutes for it to go up almost two bucks³, then it held and it fell and then it went up another two dollars over the course of the next ten minutes.
Four dollars in fifteen minutes is a pretty fast move for gold. It suggests investors were quite panicky all over the world. But then, over the next several hours, investors stopped being so scared and the price of gold started to come back down. The price dropped to less than it was just before the attacks. A sign that investors were confident that the world economy would not be terribly damaged. The same thing happened in markets around the world. Initial panic followed by a steady return to pre-attack levels. Steven Roch, the chief economist⁴ of Morgan Stanley says that traders around the world were overall remarkably⁵ calm and reasonable during the day.

While it’s initially⁶ tempting⁷ to conclude that this will be a devastating⁸ event, we’ve learnt through experience that the world is an extraordinarily⁹ resilient place.
After September 11th and the bombings in Bali and Madrid the world economy has endured even prospered¹⁰. That has reassured¹¹ investors and brought stability to markets even in the face of horrible events. Spendon, the currency trader says that some traders might have looked at today’s attacks with horror, but also some were relieved that they weren’t worse that there were no biological, chemical or nuclear weapons involved.

Maybe we, you know, we have degraded their ability to mount an attack.

Others say just the opposite , that today’s attack simply reminds investors that terrorism is a serious and on-going threat. In fact, today’s attacks are likely to have a noticeable impact on Great Britain’s economy, says Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia group.

First of all Britain's gonna have to spend a lot more money on counter -terrorism. They will, that’s going to impact their budget. Second, I expect there’s going to be real infrastructure¹² damage , it will take them a while to get backup and running simply in terms of basic, public services, getting people to work on time again, that’s going to have a negative impact on GDP in Britain.

Typically, the tourism industry suffers the most economic loss after a terrorist attack. Today, spurred by London’s successful bid for the 2012 Olympics, tourism officials were to begin planning an intense tourism marketing¹³ campaign for the city. That program has been put on hold. Tour operators say it’s simply too early to tell how these attacks will affect hotels, restaurants and other tourism companies in London.
Adam Davidson, NPR News.

1 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

2 awakened   

v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

5 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

6 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

7 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

8 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

9 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

10 prospered   

成功，兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The organization certainly prospered under his stewardship. 不可否认，这个组织在他的管理下兴旺了起来。
• Mr. Black prospered from his wise investments. 布莱克先生由于巧妙的投资赚了不少钱。

11 reassured   

adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The captain's confidence during the storm reassured the passengers. 在风暴中船长的信念使旅客们恢复了信心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The doctor reassured the old lady. 医生叫那位老妇人放心。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

13 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。