ART CASHIN: Forget The Debt Ceiling - Traders Are Buzzing About The Gigantic Asteroid Barreling Towards Earth
According to UBS's Art Cashin, this gave the New York Stock Exchange floor traders time to chat about various things.
One of those things: the gigantic asteroid heading toward earth.
From this morning's Cashin's Comments:
And You Thought The Debt Ceiling Was All You Had To Worry About – Trading was slow enough yesterday that traders had more than the usual allotment of time for chitchat. Quickly exhausting sports, politics and the rest of the usual roster, thinking and thoughts turned skyward.
They talked of the weekend news reports that an asteroid would be passing very, very near earth. How close was the key? Apparently, in mid-February, asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass within 21,000 miles of earth.
To put that in some perspective, the moon is 240,000 miles away and several GPS satellites orbit at 26,000 miles. So, the asteroid will come within orbits of satellites. No need to worry though, NASA assures us that their calculations show that it will not strike the earth. We're from the government and we're here to help you.
Let's hope NASA double-checked their math.