The week began in bullish fashion as the DOW posted a 413 point gain. The spotlight was on Bernanke as he exchanged ideas with the House Budget Committee.  Mr. Bernanke admitted that the economy will likely be slowing for the next few quarters. He also hinted that the economy would benefit from another stimulus package.

Tuesday was highlighted by Kirk Kerkorian bailing out of Ford and earnings from MMM, CAT, DD and AXP.  The DOW finished down 232 points.

All the rescue (bailout) package mess has distracted many from the fact that we’re in the thick of earnings season.  Despite good numbers from the likes of AAPL and MCD, the market had another huge down day on Wednesday with the DOW ending 514 points south.

 Thursday, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan ended up on the Hill defending his role in the current financial crisis and admitted that he may have gotten it wrong.  Weekly jobs claims were up as the DOW posted a positive move of 172 points to offset less than half of Wednesday’s downdraft.

We woke up Friday morning to a “Limit Down” on the futures.  Asian and European markets took a dive overnight and we were facing the possibility of a 1000 plus washout.  It didn’t happen that way as the bulls stepped in to make a fight of it despite eventually closing down 312 points on the DOW.  The NAR reported existing home sales up primarily due to foreclosures and low home prices.  OPEC decided to cut production by 1.5 million barrels a day.

Week over week, the indexes fell.  The DOW down 474 points, the SPX off 64 and the COMPQ  retraced 218 points.

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